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Presiding Officers Attack Trump’s Deportation Plans

Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe and President of the House of Deputies Julia Ayala Harris criticized President Donald Trump’s plans for deporting undocumented immigrants on an unprecedented scale in a pastoral letter issued January 21. They describe a series of executive orders he signed just after taking office as a “harbinger” of more dramatic actions soon to come.

“We read this news with concern and urge our new president and congressional leaders to exercise mercy and compassion, especially toward law-abiding, long-term members of our congregations and communities; parents and children who are under threat of separation in the name of immigration enforcement; and women and children who are vulnerable to abuse in detention and who fear reporting abuse to law enforcement,” Rowe and Harris said.

The presiding officers cite God’s command to “love the alien as yourself” (Lev. 19:34) and the Church’s identity as a community that “transcend[s] the earthly distinctions made among us by the leaders of this world” as the basis for its vocation to “proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is promised to the persecuted and answer Christ’s call to welcome the stranger among us.”

They urge Episcopalians to advocate on behalf of “Dreamers,” child immigrants whose path to citizenship through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program President Trump tried to end in 2017. They also call on the faithful to stand against mass deportations, and to support border management that is “proportional and humane and respects the right of asylum.”

They ask the faithful to join them in “Speaking out against anti-immigrant rhetoric and actions, including race-based targeting, vigilantism and violence, family division, and detention and deportation without charges or convictions. As Christians, we must stand against these expressions of hatred and fear with a clear witness to our sacred promise to respect the dignity of every human being.”

In his inaugural address, President Trump pledged that “illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.”

Executive orders signed on January 20 have temporarily suspended the admission of asylum-seekers. CBP One, an app used by immigrants to schedule interviews for admission at border crossings, was shuttered on Inauguration Day. Trump also declared a “state of emergency” at international borders, allowing him to send federal troops to the regions, and ended the program known as “catch and release,” which allows asylum-seekers to be discharged from detention facilities while awaiting immigration hearings.

Analysts at NBC News suggest that additional executive orders could be intended to pave the way for the promised mass deportations. These include measures requiring federal agencies to ensure that immigrants resident in the U.S. “do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions or founding principles” and a requirement that the Department of Homeland Security establish a registry of undocumented immigrants and require them to be fingerprinted.

The presiding officers close their letter by calling for prayer and donations to Episcopal Migration Ministries’ work of resettling refugees, while offering pastoral assurance to those directly affected by the immigration system changes:

“Across our church, migrants are members of the Body of Christ and part 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. Mark Michael is editor-in-chief of The Living Church. An Episcopal priest, he has reported widely on global Anglicanism, and also writes about church history, liturgy, and pastoral ministry.

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