Behind the Headlines

The Apostle Paul tells us that the Church is composed of one body, with distinct, interdependent parts, called to both rejoice and suffer together (1 Corinthians 12:12–26). Many evangelical leaders have celebrated the growth in their churches and denominations, fueled by immigrants and their children. But in a season when many of our immigrant brothers and sisters — and others whom we hope may one day embrace Jesus — are feeling the stresses and facing the dangers of rapidly changing immigration policies, it’s vital that the whole of the Church engage.

The media often oversimplifies the complexity of U.S. immigration policy changes — and to some extent, I can’t blame them. It’s my full-time job to track these changes, and some weeks I cannot keep up. To start, it’s important to understand how immigrants of different legal statuses have been affected by recent policy changes.

First, roughly half of immigrants living in the United States are naturalized U.S. citizens. Immigration policy changes shouldn’t impact them directly, since — unless they committed fraud in their naturalization process — their status as a citizen is secure. Even efforts to reinterpret the 14th Amendment to limit birthright citizenship have, thus far, been met with significant skepticism by the courts.

However, citizens — whether naturalized or native-born — could face new challenges to family reunification, particularly if their relative happens to be from countries such as Burma, Haiti, Afghanistan or other countries recently subjected to travel bans. While U.S. citizens themselves cannot be deported under the law, their non-citizen parents, spouses or children could be at risk in some cases. An estimated 5 million U.S. citizen minor children have at least one parent who is vulnerable to deportation under existing law. Congress recently authorized a massive increase in funding for immigrant detention and deportation, with a goal of uprooting more than one million people per year.

Those “vulnerable to deportation” of course include immigrants who are undocumented, whether they entered the country unlawfully or overstayed a temporary visa. While the administration says violent criminals are the top priority for deportation — a priority with which the large majority of evangelical Christians agree, according to Lifeway Research polling — the share of detained immigrants facing deportation who have been convicted of any crime declined by about 35 percent between January and June, while the share of those not charged with any crime increased roughly fourfold. The White House has recently clarified that anyone without legal status “is at risk of deportation.”

That includes at least 1.5 million immigrants who entered the country lawfully and until recently have been present lawfully with humanitarian parole, which the administration abruptly terminated. Parole is a legal manner of entry that U.S. law allows for humanitarian or “public interest” reasons on a case-by-case basis, and the Biden administration used it extensively — first for Afghans fleeing the Taliban, then for Ukrainians, Venezuelans, Haitians and others. But parole granted by one administration can be withdrawn by another, as the U.S. Supreme Court recently affirmed. Among those whose parole has been terminated are certain Afghan Christians who, if deported, could face a serious threat of martyrdom.

A final category of immigrants are refugees and asylees, both of whom are granted permanent legal status under U.S. law only if they can prove a well-founded fear of persecution for specific reasons such as their religion, race or political opinion. Refugees receive that designation overseas and arrive lawfully on airplanes, whereas asylum is granted to individuals who make their own way to the United States and present evidence of their claim once in the United States. Those who already have refugee or asylum status should be secure, but the president halted new refugee resettlement (at least temporarily) on January 20, and access to asylum has also been significantly curtailed, particularly for those who arrive to the U.S.-Mexico border. Those restrictions began under the Biden administration and have been tightened under the Trump administration. The U.S.-Mexico border is much quieter than it has been in decades — but those with a well-founded fear of persecution, including Iranian converts to Christianity, are being turned away as a result, sent to third countries such as Panama and Costa Rica.

The vast majority of evangelical Christians affirm the government’s authority and responsibility to ensure secure, orderly borders. We want our government to know who is entering the country and to do everything reasonably possible to prevent the entry of anyone who would seek to do harm. Both preventing unlawful entry and ensuring due process for those who profess to have fled a well-founded fear of persecution are vital as we urge leaders to uphold the rule of law, as is insisting that all people, even those who may ultimately need to be removed, be treated humanely as people made in God’s image.

Many recent policy shifts have led to a great deal of fear in many immigrant communities, which is why it’s a vital time for the Church to remind the immigrants among us of Jesus’ love for them and of his promise to be a refuge — even as we advocate for public policies guided by biblical principles that honor the law, ensure secure borders, protect family unity, respect the dignity of all people and show compassion.

Read the '2025 Evangelical Views on Immigration Study' by Lifeway Research

Read the NAE’s resolution that guides our immigration advocacy

Matthew Soerens is vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief, the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals. He works to help churches and faith leaders understand the realities of immigration and refugee resettlement and to respond in ways grounded in biblical values. Soerens also serves as the national coordinator for the Evangelical Immigration Table, a coalition that promotes bipartisan immigration reform rooted in Christian principles. He is the co-author of “Welcoming the Stranger, Seeking Refuge: On the Shores of the Global Refugee Crisis” and “Inalienable: How Marginalized Kingdom Voices Can Help Save the American Church.” Soerens holds degrees from Wheaton College and DePaul University’s School of Public Service.