(RNS) — A new report created by a pair of evangelical Christian organizations is raising alarms about the effects of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort on families, arguing that more than 1 million people could be “torn apart” from their families if current immigration policies continue at expected rates.
The report, which was released on Monday (May 4), was produced through a partnership between two prominent evangelical Christian organizations: World Relief, which helps resettle refugees, and the National Association of Evangelicals, an umbrella organization that represents a broad swath of evangelicals. Titled “Joined Together, Torn Apart: How U.S. Immigration Policies Are Separating Families,” the report argues Trump’s controversial immigration policies are harming families by separating spouses as well as children from their parents through deportations and detentions.
The authors stress they are “not saying that all deportations are unjust or unwarranted,” but cite Scripture to argue that “Jesus makes abundantly clear that what God has joined together in marriage, human institutions should not separate.”
On a press call with reporters on Monday, NAE President Walter Kim said family is a critical concept for evangelicals like himself.
“Evangelical concerns about immigrants, about widows, orphans — these are public policy concerns,” he said. “But more fundamentally, they’re theological concerns. They’re biblical concerns.”
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