(RNS) — The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, a Hispanic evangelical adviser to President Donald Trump, citing significant drops in church attendance in the face of immigration raids and mass deportations, is urging government leaders to recognize the “innocent people” who are being swept up in detention quotas.
Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and pastor of New Season Church in Sacramento, California, said in an interview Thursday (Oct. 16) that some churches in the NHCLC network are seeing Sunday attendance drop by 25% to 35% due to fear of immigration raids.
Other leaders of Latino and immigrant congregations throughout the U.S. have reported drops in Sunday attendance, especially in Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles, where the Trump administration has launched major federal operations.
“ In my conversations with the White House, with members of Congress and so forth,” said Rodriguez, “there is a constant affirmation that the priority is deporting the criminal element.” But in his view, “ the 25% to 30% that are being deported that are not the criminal element are a direct result of a daily quota of 3,000 deportations,” referring to goals set by the Department of Homeland Security.
Rodriguez said he has been mobilizing Latino evangelical Christians to support the bipartisan immigration reform known as the Dignity Act, urging them to …