Episcopal leaders are speaking out against the Trump administration’s plans to capture and deport record numbers of undocumented immigrants, warning of racial profiling and helping those in danger of deportation to know their rights.
“Jesus repeatedly told his followers, ‘Be not afraid.’ I strongly echo Jesus’ words because the aim of oppressors is to instill fear in the oppressed,” said the Rt. Rev. Jonathan Folts in a February 2 pastoral letter to his diocese.
Folts said that a diocesan priest had been “unlawfully racially profiled” during the previous week.
“When he answered a knock on his door, a man, without showing any identification or stating who he represented, threateningly asked, ‘You aren’t from around here, are you?’ The priest responded politely and removed his cap. The man recognized him and returned to the vehicle, which had tinted windows and no license plates,” he wrote.
He also said that three members of the Sisseton-Wahepton Oyate, a federally recognized native American nation based in the state’s southeastern region, had been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers without cause. The officers refused to recognize their tribal identification cards, and they were taken into custody before being released.
Bishop Carlye J. Hughes of Newark, one of several dioceses that declared themselves “sanctuary dioceses” during the first Trump administration, urged her flock to respond to the needs of those in greatest danger.
“Shock, outrage, and fear are normal responses to these current circumstances,” she said in a January 31 pastoral letter. “And yet even in these times, God does not leave us. In fact, when the least among us are troubled, God expects us to turn to them, using our gifts, knowledge, and resources to ease suffering, heal the afflicted, and assure the afraid that they are always in God’s sight.”
The Rt. Rev. Paula Clark said the churches of the Diocese of Chicago are ready to support immigrants, asylum-seekers and their LGBT siblings. In a January 30 pastoral letter, she wrote that “volunteers are showing up in the coldest temperatures to feed their neighbors. Legal experts are providing guidance to help us navigate the changing policies and laws.”
A parish priest in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C., has committed himself to protect members of his flock. The Rev. Vidal Rivas of Iglesia San Mateo in Hyattsville, like most of his flock, is a Salvadoran immigrant. In the last two weeks he has signed documents that make him the legal guardian of 15 children, ages 3 to 17, whose parents are in danger of deportation.
“I’m doing this because I love God, and that means loving your neighbors — especially those most vulnerable right now, the immigrants,” he told a local television station.
Episcopal Migration Ministries has worked for decades with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement to support those seeking a haven from persecution, human trafficking, war, and torture. Since 1988, EMM has resettled more than 100,000 people in communities across the United States.
Education and advocacy are also part of EMM’s work, and since the beginning of President Trump’s term, EMM staff have hosted weekly webinars advising church leaders on how to protect undocumented immigrants in their communities. Over 800 people have participated in some of the recent sessions.
Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe announced on January 31 that EMM would wind down its refugee resettlement work by February 14, after the president signed an executive order suspending all refugee programs on Inauguration Day.
It will lay off 22 employees. A small group will stay on to wrap up the programs that were supported by federal grants.
Rowe told Episcopal News Service that “an end of federal funding for Episcopal Migration Ministries does not mean an end to The Episcopal Church’s commitment to stand with migrants and with our congregations who serve vulnerable immigrants and refugees.”
The commitment echoed words from a pastoral letter issued by Rowe and President of the House of Deputies Julia Ayala Harris on the day after the Inauguration: “Across our church, migrants are members of the Body of Christ and parts of our congregations and communities, and our common life is richer thanks to their contributions. To our siblings who are at risk of deportation or of being separated from those you love, know that your story is our story, and your dignity is inseparable from our own. We stand with you, and we will face these challenges together.”
The Rev. Meredyth Albright is a longtime journalist and rector of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church in Rhinelander, Wisconsin.
