6 Christian Leaders Who Are For or Against Trump’s Immigration Policies

Robert Jeffress, the senior pastor of First Baptist Dallas, shared that although his church welcomes all visitors, Christians must also obey the law. 

"At First Baptist Church in Dallas, we do not check for green cards — that's government's responsibility," the Rev. Robert Jeffress said in an email to the Associated Press. "The Bible teaches that God created the institution of government to protect its citizens. …Christians have a duty to obey the laws government establishes which would include immigration laws."

Jeffress, who served as an evangelical advisor to Trump in his first term, previously stressed that God is "not an open orders guy" after the president rescinded the DACA immigration program in 2017.

"While Christian compassion is one consideration, it's not the only consideration in the immigration problem," he said. "I mean, the Bible also says that God is the one who established nations and its borders. God is not necessarily an open-borders guy, as a lot of people would think that he is.

"And thirdly, the Bible says God has ordained the government to protect its citizens. So when you are talking about a biblical solution to immigration, yes, we need to talk about compassion, but we need to balance that with the government's real responsibility to protect its citizens."

During a 2015 "Fox and Friends Weekend" interview, Jeffress argued that liberal churches harboring illegal immigrants are not following the example of Jesus but rather an imagined version of the Savior. 

"The only problem is they are following the Jesus of their imagination rather than the Jesus of the Bible," Jeffress said.

Photo Credit: ©First Baptist Dallas

Samuel Rodriguez, pastor at the New Season megachurch in California and the president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, told The Christian Post in an interview earlier this month that he does not believe that Trump's immigration policy will not harden legal immigrants or churches. 

"I do not foresee any circumstance where [Immigrations and Customs Enforcement] agents in cooperation with other law enforcement agencies go guns a-blazing on a Sunday morning service," said Rodriguez.

"They're not going to come into churches, but they might be outside the parking lot area. Not in the parking lot, but outside in the premises, outside the church property, looking for that criminal element to maybe come out of a church service — that gang banger or that person who has a record. That's a possibility."

He previously expressed concern after Trump rescinded the DACA immigration program in 2017 over the separation of families through deportation.

"As a pastor, I cannot sit idly by while the federal government threatens to forcibly separate families by deportation," he said at the time. 

Photo Credit: ©Instagram/pastorsamuelrodriguez

Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) since January 2020, has been outspoken on the topic of immigration as someone who has immigrant parents from North Korea. Kim was a pastor in multiethnic and Korean immigrant churches for nearly 30 years before joining the NAE full-time.

As president of the association, Kim noted that congregations at those churches worry about "an overreaction" from ICE agents, such as disrupting their places of worship "in the pursuit of undocumented criminal influence" and undermining the sanctity of their churches.

"Should churches be law-abiding? Absolutely. Should they be cooperating with agencies to ensure that criminal influences are dealt with? Absolutely," Kim said. "But by and large, those communities that are experiencing fear and not going to church is far beyond the very small portion of the immigrant, undocumented criminal segment."

Photo Credit: ©Facebook/Walter Kim

The Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde made headlines last month after telling Trump during the traditional inaugural prayer service at the National Cathedral to have "mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now," including "gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families. Some who fear for their lives."

"The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat-packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals. They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals," the bishop continued.

In response, Trump later criticized the service in a post on Truth Social, saying it was "not good" and called Budde a "radical left, hardline Trump hater." He also stressed that she and the church deliver a public apology.

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Pope Francis denounced Trump over his immigration policies, including writing a letter to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops about the "major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations."

Speaking to reporters last Tuesday, Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, accused Francis of hypocrisy for speaking out against the mass deportations while living inside the Vatican surrounded by a wall.

"He's got a wall around the Vatican, does he not? So, he's got a wall around to protect his people and himself, but we can't have a wall around the United States?" Homan said. 

"I wish he'd stick to the Catholic Church and fix that and leave border enforcement to us."

Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Giulio Origlia/Stringer

Following Trump's signing of executive orders ending birthright citizenship and rescinding policies that limited immigration enforcement actions in sensitive places like schools, churches, and hospitals, Florida pastor Gabriel Salguero of The Gathering Place, a Latino-led multiethnic church in Orlando, Florida, shared that teachers at his church have expressed fear and anxiety over their students whose parents have mixed immigration status.

Salguero, who is also the president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, noted that the immigration actions send "an inconsistent message" and that he and other pastors "are trying to seek clarity."

"We need to deal with criminals and violent criminals in ways that keep our community safe. We support that," he said. "On the other hand, they're passing memos and executive orders that are way beyond that scope."

Salguero also addressed the role international aid has in preventing migration to the United States.

"If we're concerned with immigration, shouldn't we also be concerned about how foreign aid helps people stay in their country and flourish?" he said. "These things are not disconnected."

Photo Credit: ©Facebook/Pastors Salguero