(RNS) — Faith leaders are reacting with concern to a report that President-elect Donald Trump plans to rescind a long-standing policy that discourages immigration officials from conducting raids at churches, schools and hospitals.
According to a report from NBC News on Wednesday (Dec. 11), the incoming Trump administration plans to do away with a policy outlined in an internal 2011 U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement memo by then-ICE director John Morton. The policy discourages government agents from making arrests at or near “sensitive locations,” such as houses of worship.
The news comes amid Trump’s campaign pledge to enact the “largest deportation” in U.S. history, which he has said could begin soon after he assumes office, and suggested in an interview over the weekend that U.S. citizens could be deported with undocumented family members.
The Trump transition team did not respond to a request to confirm the president-elect’s intent to change the policy, but the Rev. Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, said in a statement that news of the policy change was “sending a deep chill down the spine of the Latino evangelical church.”
The Rev. Gabriel Salguero. (Photo courtesy of The Gathering)
In a separate interview, Salguero noted he recently completed a “know your rights” training with 82 Hispanic evangelical bishops, many of whom have immigrants — undocumented and otherwise — in their congregations. He called the proposed change “a fear-based policy” and voiced concern about whether it will respect religious liberty.
“How are they going to execute these raids? In ways that respect religious liberty and in ways that do not strike fear into children who are worshipping in Sunday school? I have 30 kids in a Sunday school class — I don’t know who is documented and undocumented,” Salguero said.
The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and one of Trump’s evangelical advisers, maintained in an email that the policy change is more narrow in intent and that he is “convinced the incoming Trump administration will focus on criminal illegal immigrants.” He insisted the policy “serves as a warning” to undocumented immigrants who engage in criminal activity, such as “sex, human, and drug traffickers” or “rapist, gang members.”
“I do not foresee …