A report published by the Catholic bishops and evangelical leaders of the United States indicates that one of each twelve Christians – and in particular one in five Catholics – “faces the risk of deportation or coexists with someone who suffers from it.”
The report, entitled One Part of the Body: The Potential Impact of Deportations on American Christian FamiliesMarch 31 was published on the website of the United States Catholic Bishops Conference (USCCB).
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It has been prepared by the Department of Migration and Services for Refugees of the USCCB, in collaboration with the National Association of Evangelics, World Relief and the Center for the Study of Global Christianity of the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminar.
In its introduction, the document recalls that “the apostle Paul describes the Church of Jesus Christ as ‘a single body’ that” is not composed of a single member, but many “, and that” if a member suffers, all members suffer with him; if a member receives honor, all members rejoice with him. “
In the United States, he adds, although most migrants “are legally present”, there is a significant proportion that is vulnerable to deportation.
The report authors express their concern because during the presidential campaign, Donald Trump said “There could be up to 20 million deportable immigrants in the United States after elections.”
However, he also remembers that in the survey conducted In December 2024 For the Bulfinch Group and the National Immigration Forum, “a large majority of Americans – including 62% of Catholics and 70% of evangelical Protestants – wants” that deportations focus on criminals and those with final deportation orders, but not all undocumented.
Migrants at risk
The document quotes the policy signed by President Trump the first day he returned to the White House to deport documented immigrants, which would be eleven million According to the report Posted in 2024 by the Pew Research Center.
However, the Christian churches point out that migrants who accepted temporary status or protections could also be at risk, but “that could be revoked by the Executive Power, without the need for approval of the Congress.”
The analysis explains that among these categories “are many Christians, since Christianity is, by far, the religion of the vast majority” of those who are protected by these programs.
In that sense, he estimates that, “at the end of 2024, there were more than 10 million Christian immigrants in the United States vulnerable to deportation, including those who do not have legal status.”
In addition, “we discovered that almost 7 million American Christians coexist with people at a risk of deportation”, who are mostly “spouses or minor children of immigrants at risk of deportation.”
The text indicates that “when the deportation of a member of a family is ordered,” this runs the risk of dismembering, if he does not make the decision to expatt the whole.
But in addition, there are cases where repatriation “could also imply the abandonment of religious freedom, guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, but not all countries respect.”
Programs that could be canceled
One of the government programs that is in danger is the Temporary Protection Statute (TPS)implemented in 1990 to welcome the affected people in their countries of origin by wars, conflicts, natural disasters or epidemics.
As of September 2024, 1.1 million people legally lived with this status and more than 95% come from Venezuela, Haiti, El Salvador, Honduras and Ukraine. Of the total beneficiaries of the TPS, 54% are Catholics and 21% belong to other Christian confessions.
The Trump government announced the revocation of TPS for Venezuelans and Haitians. However, this measure was blocked Monday by a federal judge from California.
Another program at risk is Deferred action for children’s arrivals (Daca)a temporary and renewable exemption for those who arrived being under 16 before June 2007.
He currently benefits 530,000 people, most of them between 20 and 40 years old. “It is estimated that 300,000 American citizen children live with at least one beneficiary father of Daca,” says the analysis. 73% of those protected by DACA are Catholics and 15% are from other Christian confessions.
The analysis indicates that these people “could run the risk of being deported if the Trump administration (or any subsequent presidential administration) followed the appropriate processes to cancel the DACA” or if the Supreme Court coincided “with the lower courts in which the program was created illegally.”
Another program is Deferred forced output (DED)granted by Trump at the end of his first term for most Venezuelan migrants citing “human rights violations” in his country of origin. Then, President Joe Biden “extended the TPS to many of these same people.” Liberian, Hongkoneses, Lebanese and migrants from the Palestinian territories also benefited.
However, this program could be canceled or not renewed by the Executive Power.
The fourth status is the call Humanitarian wordsgranted to discretion by the Secretary of National Security to “immigrants who, otherwise, would not qualify for admission, but only case by case, for urgent humanitarian reasons or for a significant public benefit.”
This initiative benefited Afghas evacuated after the return of the Taliban in 2021, Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians, Ukrainians and others who were sponsored even by religious people and groups “who promised to be financially responsible” for them.
The White House has announced its review to eliminate “those that do not conform to government priorities.”
In March, the Trump administration announced This status would be canceled to 532,000 immigrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela, leaving them subject to deportation, except for legal challenges.
Finally, there is the “significant number” of Asylum seekers and that they could be deported “if an immigration judge does not grant them asylum or other help.”
“Among asylum seekers, which include those who have expressed fear of persecution due to their religious beliefs, 58 % are Catholics, 14 % are evangelical and 5 % belong to other Christian groups,” the report said.
The analysis warns that if the government fulfills its promise to “expel all foreigners who enter or remain in the country violating the immigration law” and eliminates temporary protections, the impact “would be deep in the congregations throughout the United States and in families that would probably suffer separation.”
“We pray that the president and his administration, as well as Congress, consider these harsh realities when implementing immigration policies,” concludes the report.
Eduardo Berdejo
Professional in Social Communication of the National University of San Marcos in Peru, I have more than 20 years of experience in Catholic digital journalism. As part of ACI Press, I have been sent to cover the trips of Pope Francis to Cuba, Mexico, Colombia and Peru, in addition to the Synod of Sinodality in the Vatican in 2023.