Amid sweeping immigration crackdown, Minnesota churches scrambling to respond

Church leaders are scrambling to respond as the Trump administration makes sweeping changes in immigration policy, ranging from freezing federal funds for refugee resettlement to revoking a policy prohibiting the arrest of undocumented immigrants in Christian houses of worship.

“This is a moment for us to recommit to the stranger among us with the love God extends to every human being,” Bishop Craig Loya of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota wrote Thursday in an email to the archdiocese.

Loya said he is establishing a migrant support fund and seeding it with a gift of $10,000. He asked the faith community to consider designating the March 2 church offering to help build the fund.

“The need is very large and we in the Episcopal Diocese in Minnesota will continue to do everything we can to step in and fill the gap,” Loya told the Minnesota Star Tribune.

Regardless of federal policies, he said, “we will continue to stand with immigrants.”

On Friday, the eight bishops who constitute the membership of the Minnesota Catholic Conference issued a statement calling for immigration reform “that includes resources for improved border security, a generous but also prudent welcome of refugees and those seeking asylum that does not overly burden local communities, and pathways to legal status for long-term undocumented residents.”

The bishops said they offer wholehearted support for the Trump administration’s actions to detain and deport immigrants with criminal records who pose a danger to society. But they said they oppose indiscriminate enforcement that threatens to unnecessarily or unjustly separate families.

“Mongering fear is not part of Christianity,” said Bishop Jen Nagel of the Minneapolis Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). “Heightening anxiety is not part of Christianity. Spreading hate and rumors and distrust of our neighbors is not part of Christianity.”

Nagel evoked Jesus’ call to love thy neighbor, welcome the vulnerable and protect the sojourner. “That is just core of who we are,” she said. “We have to lean into that right now.”

Nagel has been inviting congregations to participate in the work of Global Refuge — the resettlement agency formerly known as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service — and similar organizations, both financially and through prayer and action. “I think us encouraging that is important,” she said.

Meanwhile, she said, Lutheran congregations are trying to figure out how to help immigrants.

“There’s such a widespread fear that is in this process, and that’s putting a lot of pressure on our leaders, pastors and deacons, who are doing a really fine job of helping people stay grounded in the faith and walking and working together,” Nagel said.

A Pew Research Center survey last summer found that majority of Catholics and Protestants support Trump.

The administration intensified the debate recently by attacking Christian organizations’ use of federal funds to aid foreign newcomers. Trump adviser Elon Musk vowed to shut off “illegal payments” to Lutheran refugee resettlement agencies, while Vice President JD Vance questioned whether Catholic organizations that receive millions “to help resettle illegal immigrants” are driven by concern for their own bottom line.

Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota did not respond to a request for comment on Musk’s remarks. The resettlement agency said in late January that it had helped resettle 387 refugees since Oct. 1 and with the federal funding freeze, new arrivals will need help to pay for rent, food, medical expenses and other basic needs. The agency said it’s cobbling together private funds and inviting the community to donate.

Resettlement agencies currently receive $1,650 from the federal government to cover expenses for each refugee — along with about $1,300 for administrative costs — and to submit documents for reimbursement.

Jeff Groen, connections pastor at Hometown Church in Bloomington, received an email from Arrive Ministries soliciting money to fill in the gaps left by the federal funding freeze that affected 109 of its newly arrived refugees. He and other pastors in the church decided to donate $7,500.

The United States receives just a fraction of displaced people in the world, he said, and the Bible has many passages about loving and caring for immigrant neighbors.

“They need help,” Groen said.

Sts. Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church in northeast Minneapolis draws 1,200 attendees to its three Spanish services each Sunday. The Rev. Fernando Ortega said he hasn’t heard much concern from members, though one worshipper questioned whether he should come to church because he is undocumented and has a criminal record.

Ortega encouraged the man to know his rights “but at the same time not to paralyze himself.”

The church has held several informational workshops about immigration, but Ortega said he hasn’t spoken about the issue much from the pulpit because he doesn’t want to create anxiety.

The Catholic bishops voiced concern over the rescinding of policies that previously limited enforcement at “sensitive” locations, such as churches, schools, shelters, and hospitals.

It is ”often precisely in these places that we, as Catholics, respond to Christ’s command to care for our ‘neighbors’ without discrimination,” the bishops said. “It is not difficult to imagine how the changed policy could interfere with the exercise of our faith to serve those in need.”

They advocated for no immigration enforcement to take place on Catholic church or school property without a properly executed warrant.

In his email to the archdiocese, Loya encouraged people to pray and become involved in organization and advocacy. He lamented the impact of recent executive orders on Episcopal refugee organizations.

The refugee services program at the Minnesota Council of Churches is a local affiliate of Episcopal Migration Ministries, a program of the Episcopal Church. The council said it had prepared to welcome 960 new refugees this year but has canceled 91 flights.

The council also said the federal funding freeze has severely threatened its ability to support newly arrived refugees who came before Trump suspended refugee admissions.

“As a diocese and as a denomination, we contain a good deal of political diversity,” Loya said. “But for us, caring for immigrants is not a political issue — it’s a moral and spiritual issue.

“And so, while I believe that Christians of good faith can disagree about any number of matters related to politics and public policy, what we cannot disagree about and what we remain committed to is caring for all of God’s children and affirming the inherent dignity and worth of every human being.”