The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, a Hispanic evangelical adviser to President Donald Trump, citing significant drops in church attendance in the face of immigration raids and mass deportations, is urging government leaders to recognize the “innocent people” who are being swept up in detention quotas.
Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and pastor of New Season Church in Sacramento, California, said in an interview Thursday that some churches in the NHCLC network are seeing Sunday attendance drop by 25% to 35% due to fear of immigration raids.
Other leaders of Latino and immigrant congregations throughout the U.S. have reported drops in Sunday attendance, especially in Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles, where the Trump administration has launched major federal operations.
“ In my conversations with the White House, with members of Congress and so forth,” said Rodriguez, “there is a constant affirmation that the priority is deporting the criminal element.” But in his view, “ the 25% to 30% that are being deported that are not the criminal element are a direct result of a daily quota of 3,000 deportations,” referring to goals set by the Department of Homeland Security.
Rodriguez said he has been mobilizing Latino evangelical Christians to support the bipartisan immigration reform known as the Dignity Act, urging them to gather at church to pray for Congress to pass the bill, led by U.S. Reps. María Elvira Salazar, a Republican from Miami, and Texas Democrat Veronica Escobar.
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DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in late September that 70% of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees are “criminal illegal aliens who have been convicted or have pending charges in the US,” but data at the time of her statement shows 36% of those arrested have no criminal record.
Rodriguez supports the deportation of criminals but claimed that ICE is forced into making arrests of criminals and non-criminals alike because leaders in blue states won’t grant ICE access to their incarcerated populations.
“Let’s say, hypothetically speaking, they reach 2,500 a day that are complete criminals, gang bangers, pedophiles, rapists, drug dealers et cetera,” Rodriguez said. “ If the blue states primarily don’t cooperate and give ICE access to their prisons and jails, then they have to find the other 500 because they have a quota of 3,000.” He added, “ Not that I’m affirming that, I’m not celebrating that.”
At the NHCLC’s annual summit on Tuesday, the organization heard from Salazar, whose bill would increase enforcement resources at the U.S. borders while allowing unauthorized immigrants without criminal records who have been in the country more than five years to earn legal status if they pay taxes and $7,000 in restitution.
The bill would expedite the asylum process but would hold asylum seekers in “humanitarian campuses,” rather than releasing them into the U.S. while they wait for a court decision, as has been the practice for decades. It would pay for U.S. citizens to receive workforce training, funded by the immigrants’ restitution payments. It would also make changes to immigration visas.
“There’s never been a more conservative proposal. None ever, ever, ever,” said Rodriguez. “This does not grant citizenship. This is the opposite of amnesty.” Instead, he said, it offered the chance for immigrants who have entered illegally to work legally. “You don’t have to live in fear,” he said. “ It gives people dignity, and that dignity status to me is beautiful. It’s because we’re all created in the image of God.”
Rodriguez did not express confidence in the bill’s swift passage. “ Right now I think I have faith, and hopefully that faith will convert to hope, because faith is the conviction of things hoped for and the assurance of things not seen.” He said “the same administration that brought an end to a war in Gaza” was capable of immigration reform, calling it “a layup in comparison.”
The Dignity Act is just one priority of the NHCLC’s newly launched Center for Public Policy, which will focus on antisemitism through a partnership with the Anti-Defamation League.
“ Latino evangelicals must be at the forefront of protecting our Jewish brothers and sisters around the world speaking up on behalf of the nation of Israel,” Rodriguez said. “It doesn’t mean that we are in perfect alignment with everything (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu says or does. That’s silly. No politician is perfect. No administration is above criticism, but we are in favor of the state of Israel.”
Another partner will be the Faith & Freedom Coalition, an evangelical voter-turnout organization long aligned with the GOP. “We don’t lean right. We don’t lean left,” Rodriguez said. “We stand on the finished work of Christ.”
The center’s other priorities will include “issues that impact life from womb to tomb,” family tax credits, early childhood education and parental rights, a priority often intertwined with anti-LGBTQ+ positions.
Last year the organization launched the Center for Ministerial Health, which hosted 15 mental health symposiums in the past year. “ The response has been more than amazing, literally saving families, marriages, ministries and lives,” said Rodriguez.
On Tuesday, the NHCLC celebrated its recent expansion internationally, an effort to establish chapters in Latin America, Spain and Latino diasporas in other Western countries, led by Colombian pastor Iván Delgado Glenn.
“ We’re gonna build a firewall against ideologies that take away our rights, our freedom of speech, our freedom of religious liberty, and so if the church rises up, light wins and darkness loses because we believe in the image of God,” Rodriguez told media. “ The majority of countries already have the national evangelical alliances. We’re not there to replace them at all. We’re there to resource them.”
The new initiative will assist in “ building a firewall against the encroachment of Marxism” in foreign policy, including in Venezuela, said Rodriguez.
On this score Rodriguez blamed the leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for the seizure of prominent Brazilian pastor Silas Malafaia’s passport, calling it a religious liberty issue. Malafaia, who has been linked to dominion theology — the idea that Christians should control all aspects of society — is an ally of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, recently sentenced to 27 years in prison for planning a coup.
While fighting on these fronts abroad, Rodriguez advised his organization’s constituents to brave the pressures of immigration enforcement at home, telling them to go to church. “ Church is the safer space. There is no safer space than the church.” He said, “ We need to come together and believe that the God of the impossible who changed the hearts and minds of leaders in the Old and New Testament will do it again for us.
“He doesn’t change. So we believe the Holy Spirit is still moving. He can change hearts and minds, so go to church.”
Aleja Hertzler-McCain is a national reporter for Religion News Service based in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
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32 Responses
So, if I understand the story, Samuel Rodriguez says that church attendance has dropped among Latino churchgoers due to fear of ICE raids. Then, Rodriguez touts a piece of federal legislation– “it is the opposite of amnesty” he crows–which hasn’t passed but he HOPES will pass. He says nothing about that bill having slim hopes of passing a Congress being held out of session in order to block newly elected Adelita Grijalva, a Latina (!) representative from Arizona, from being sworn in. But, hey, Rodriguez does blame “blue states” (not a divisive term at all) for not opening up their jails to ICE agents who are operating under laws in effect right now, notwithstanding pesky due-process considerations. Then, without addressing ANY OF the actual day-to-day concerns that might be motivating Latino churchgoers to stay away from church buildings, Rodriguez tells them to “GO TO CHURCH” anyway. The voice of Rodriguez’s “Holy Spirit” sounds an awful lot like Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, and Tom Homan. I do not think Samuel Rodriguez can hear what Latino churchgoers in America are saying by their actions. Has he considered that Latino churchgoers have heard the Holy Spirit’s voice telling them to stay home?
A perfect illustration of how lawlessness has infiltrated the church, and its pulpits. If someone breaks the law and enters another country illegally they are not “innocent”. The fact that a pastor would play fast & loose with the truth like this explains why the church is in such a spiritual decline.
If someone – due to persecution – has their passport taken from them and has their money seized by an authoritarian dictatorship (for example) – how do you propose they leave that country ‘legally’ to find safety in another place?
Yes, there are laws that say how someone should or shouldn’t enter a country, but sometimes (/maybe always?!) compassion trumps those laws.
I remember hearing about a middle eastern man whose parents fled to another country when they feared for their son’s life. That son grew up and told the story of David ‘doing what was unlawful to do’ and eating the bread in the temple as him and his men were hungry – the point being the mercy and compassion to David was more important than the law. The man who told that story was being accused of breaking laws because his followers were hungry and while walking through a field of wheat were picking the wheat to eat, something which was unlawful to so on a sabbath.
Tom Repton,
We can show compassion without breaking the law.
How ironic. Evangelical pastor in USA goes against the teaching of the bible.
“Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.”
Romans 13:1-2
I’m just curious, what would you do if this was the 1930’s and we were in Nazi Germany? Would you quote Romans 13 as your neighbors went off to the camps?
Let’s see. Illegal immigrants have entered the USA illegally. This is against Gods order. They have been asked to self deport and reapply legally. There is no unlawful order from the government for ICE to murder them.
Jews in Nazi Germany were legal citizens, racially targeted for extermination by genocide by orders of Hitler. This is against Gods order.
Beginning in 1933 the German government at the direction of Adolf Hitler removed the citizenship of German Jews, and other so-called undesirables.
https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llglrd/2019670401/2019670401.pdf
Larry, many of the people detained by ICE HAVE applied legally… many are here legally… they have papers. Many of us discerned then (candidate Trump and gang) and can discern now by the words and deeds of elected Trump/Miller et al… They want to punish, harass, terrorize, persecute, expel (and maybe even eliminate) ALL brown people, regardless if they are ‘legal’ or not… This admin are racists; they are white supremacists… they DO NOT CARE about legality… in their heart of hearts they want a mostly white European america and if any others are left over, they want those people to be a second-class minority with few rights or dignity; easily exploitable, convenient punch-bag/scapegoat-Period. How this isn’t obvious by now is beyond a lot of us…
That is an extreme reply. No one is going to concentration camps and being killed. You would help your neighbors escape, just like we can help the illegals escape back to their country.
No one is going to concentration camps and being killed *yet*. And even that’s not true. The camp in Florida (“alligator alcatraz”) was intended to be a concentration camp by definition, and was a test balloon to see how it would be accepted. The prison camps in other countries are “concentration camps”. And to be sure- Hitler started with dehumanizing a people group and mass deportations. People were ok with their Jewish neighbors being loaded on to trains because they believed they were being “deported”. Making a society ok with a mass removal is the first step to making them ok with a permanent mass removal.
Jen Manlief:
Since you tend to refuse to interact with those who disagree with your viewpoint, this is being added for my benefit and the benefit of those who seek TRUTH.
1) German people looked the other way when Jews were rounded up. There is no indication in the historical record that they thought Jews were being deported.
2) Comparing Alligator Alcatraz with ANY Nazi Concentration Camp shows an appalling lack of historical knowledge. It also reveals a sad disregard for Holocaust survivors and their family members.
3) Stating that prison camps in other countries are “concentration camps” is a matter of personal opinion, not fact. Sometimes you confuse the two.
4) To conflate sending people back to their home countries with sending Jews to their deaths during the Nazi era in Germany reveals, again, a complete lack of knowledge and understanding.
Sometimes it is best to speak the truth or remain silent.
Jane King:
Comparing sending people back to their home countries when they enter our country illegally to what happened to the Jews during the Holocaust in Nazi Germany is ludicrous. More to the point, it reveals an emotional response to a perceived injustice that does not exist. It is both just (to the American people) and legal to deport those who enter our nation illegally. You may not like the law, but it exists to protect the sovereignty of our nation.
There are laws and we are meant to follow those which coincide with Biblical teaching. When it comes to the Holocaust, the Bible did not, does not, and never will condone putting Jewish people in gas chambers simply because of their Jewish heritage. The Bible DOES support laws designed to protect a nation’s sovereignty.
Hi Larry.
The list of biblical heroes who disobeyed the law — and were praised for doing so — is long. It includes: the Hebrew midwives in Exodus, Moses’ parents, Rahab, David, Abagail, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Esther, Mary, pretty much all of the apostles, Peter, Cornelius… and, of course, Jesus himself.
Almost as long as the least human leaders who are condemned in scripture for making, obeying or enforcing unjust laws: Pharoah, Ahab, Jezebel, King Saul, Jereboam, Jehoiakim, Israel’s wicked judges, the Scribes and Pharisees, Pilate, etc, etc, etc.
When Godly people break human laws out of loyalty to God’s higher justice, they are blessed. When leaders and nations make unjust laws, they are cursed.
I don’t see God judging Corrie Ten Boom, Dr. King or Rosa Parks for breaking the law. Do you?
Two thumbs up, John McCollum.
John McCollum:
Christians are taught to obey human laws up to the point where they conflict with Biblical law. After that, they follow God’s law.
Hebrew midwives – ignored Pharaoh, obeyed God. (Exodus 1)
Moses’ parents – ignored Pharaoh, obeyed God (Exodus 1)
Rahab – ignored the king of Jericho; become an ancestor of Jesus
David – a man after God’s own heart; followed God, not man.
Daniel and his 3 buddies- refused to participate in idolatry; followed God’s law instead
I could go on, but I am certain you understand the point I am making.
And, no, Jesus never broke any law. He came to fulfill the law and was sinless.
Laws protecting the sovereignty of the USA do not conflict with Biblical law or principles.
Cynthia-
To John’s point, your argument WAS used by churches (particularly the SBC) to criticize Dr. King and Rosa Parks for breaking the law. I notice you left those off your list.
Marin,
If my argument was used by churches to justify hurting Black brothers and sisters, including Dr. King and Rosa Park, then those “churches” were misinterpreting the Bible big-time. Or, perhaps, they were simply used by Satan to confuse true believers.
NOWHERE in God’s law is there justification for racism. NOWHERE. So, any law that justifies the belittling of people because of skin color most definitely is NOT God’s law and is NOT found in the Bible. The very nature of God Himself argues against it.
So Cynthia I have this question. Every time I ask you the question about the ‘Dr’ in front of your name the comment never gets posted. I wonder why? Hmmmmm
I assume you take pride in in that title (Nothing wrong with that)
So are you a MD? Did you get a PhD? If so in what area of study?
Cynthia, I’d argue that ignoring Pharaoh and obeying God is exactly what one does when they obey God’s commands regarding fairness, hospitality, protection, and equality for foreigners, aliens and strangers, even in the face of unjust human laws to the contrary.
And you’re just patently wrong about Jesus not breaking ANY laws. He healed on the Sabbath. He defied Rome by claiming to be Lord. Yet he was morally blameless, because he was obeying God’s laws by disobeying man’s unjust or invalid laws.
John McCollum:
What unjust American immigration laws are you referring to? It sounds like you’re in favor of open borders. We have laws to protect our sovereignty, and those laws are applied equally to one and all. Why do you think they are unjust?
Jesus did NOT break any laws at all. He came to fulfill the law. The “laws” you are referring to were made up by the Sanhedrin and various other groups. One example of this was the law which said you could give your property to the synagogue and thus get out of taking care of your parents. This “rule” ( created outside the scope of Biblical law) contradicted one of the Ten Commandments.
Jesus fulfilled all laws established by His Father. He ignored those created by religious leaders. He even made fun of those who created the burdensome rules and said things like, “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Matthew 12: 8.
As stated several times, God’s laws trump human laws every time.
John Mcullum, you condone illegal migration and say that this is a higher law of God’s than a request that they self deport and reapply legally.
That may be your theology, but it is not mine.
You seem to think that the democratic will of the majority of American people (IE an elected government) is somehow unjust and deserves rebellion, while the ones who actually broke God’s law were the illegal immigrants, not the government.
Your comparison to biblical heroes who defied unjust leaders in the bible is not the same as requesting illegals to deport and reapply legally. This obedience to be legal, not illegal is not a violation of God’s law or love your neighbour.
If you think that American immigration policy and enforcement simply consists of “a request that they self deport and reapply legally,” you’re not listening to your brothers and sisters in Christ who report being abused and denied due process by our government.
Why is it that you are so quick to believe the secular state government and so slow to believe pastors and Christians who are — in huge numbers and with great consistency — claiming that they and their congregants have witnessed and experienced abuse?
And lest you think me a partisan, I’ve been vocal about this issue throughout Bush, Obama, Biden AND Trump administrations…
John McCollum
I do listen to my brothers and sisters in Christ, unlike your narrative which follows the MSNBC, Pelsosi, TDS bandwagon.
If you don’t like a law it doesn’t always make it unjust or secular or against God’s order.
Many God fearing immigrants entered the USA legally. Members of my family and friends to be exact.
Should legal God fearing immigrants join your rebellious stance to side with illegal immigrants against the wishes of the elected (by the people) government?
If a law was passed that it is no longer unlawful to steal, would you steal or would you follow God’s law?
For the record I strongly believe in Leviticus 19v33 “When a foreigner resides among you in your land do not mistreat them”
I am not against immigration, I just want the illegal immigration to stop. Many brothers and sisters across the world agree that this is fair and loving. God bless!
“I am not against immigration, I just want the illegal immigration to stop”
This is a pretty consistent stance on both sides of the aisle. And I’m sure we all know the reasons for illegal immigration are VERY complex and multilayered; there is no “one solution” that will make it all stop.
Where I see the conflation of issues is when HOW to treat those who are here illegally comes into play. From my perspective, this when Leviticus 19:33 “When a foreigner resides among you in your land do not mistreat them” and other similar verses come into play. Being here illegally does not mean one deserves to be physically and verbally abused or harassed (which we are seeing ICE and federal agents do via camera footage), robbed of due process (our Constitution promises this of anyone who is on our soil), separated from family, or to be left starving or cold (it’s already dropping to the 30s here in Chicago). Yet when people speak out against this treatment or lobby for migrants to receive due process, food and shelter, it turns into a blend of “but they are here illegally” (as if that justifies mistreatment) or “that means you’re in support of open borders!” (NO, but I am for treating people humanely as this gets figured out).
A lot more of us are on the same side than we realize.
Very well, said, thank you for your eloquence!
Pastor, I hate to say it, but what you’re experiencing now is a direct encounter with the racism that has become increasingly visible within the current Republican Party. I’m not sure what outcome you were expecting, but many of us saw this coming and could have warned you that this was the inevitable result.
People tend to want law and order when it benefits them, and grace and mercy when it doesn’t. The bible reminds its loyal readers that they were once aliens, and not to forget what that felt like. God’s grace and mercy should hopefully produce an attitude of gratitude that we reciprocate to others. If that gets lost in our political excitement, we might as well just stick with Leviticus and throw away the rest of our bible.
This is heartbreaking for the Latino community and the church serving it.
FYI, many of us DO believe in upholding the law, yet believe it can be done without robbing people of their dignity.
I continue to be in prayer.
Rather, “Almost at least as long…”
Even among Democratic Presidents there were deportations of Illegals but it remained an event rarely talked about or celebrated.
But under Trump the deportations are celebrated and xenophobia is at an all time high. During his first administration people chanted “Build that wall”. During Trump’s second term when Alligator Alcatraz was built T-shirts and hats were sold. Lie after lie were spread about illegals even accusing Haitians or eating cats and dogs (Proven to be false)
Instead of being treated as a regrettable decision (Except in the case of violent criminals) it is a celebrated event.
As I see it, the problem with discussing this issue of immigration is society’s overall failure to understand the inherent difference between what is lawful and what is legal.
They are not the same, but the ruling class works overtime to convince us they are just interchangeable terms to keep us obedient and profitable (slaves).
One is based in reality (lawful), and one in fiction (legal). One is natural (law), and one is synthetic (legal). One has a real victim (law), and one has a fictitious “victim”(legal). One involves actual, living people trespassing against other people (law), and one involves fictitious entities, ie. persons or corporations “violating” policy/statutes/codes (legal).
One entails the proper use of the word “violence” due to an individual’s natural rights (from the Creator) being “violated” (law). One is a theoretical/synthetic violation (void of genuine physical violence) of man-made policies/statutes/codes, and almost always results in a monetary fine that enriches the fictitious entity (legal).
One does not change from the beginning of time to the end of time (law), and one does change according to the whims of the politician (legal). One cannot be weaponized to trap and plunder mankind (law), while the other is often easily weaponized to trap, plunder, even destroy mankind (legal). Ever heard of governments legalizing what is unlawful (murder, rape, theft, etc)?
Much more could be said about this topic.