Faith leaders continue to raise mounting concern about the global impact of President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend operations of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

“This action threatens to reverse decades of progress in global health, education and poverty alleviation, disproportionately affecting marginalized communities,” said Emmett J. Dunn, secretary-treasurer of the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Convention.

In a statement released Feb. 9 on behalf of Lott Carey, a historically Black Baptist group, Dunn said suspension of USAID operations could have “dire consequences”—sparking “health crises” and “educational disruptions,” and jeopardizing essential humanitarian aid.

“The halt in funding has already led to the closure of field hospitals in regions like Syria, leaving millions without essential medical aid,” Dunn stated. “In countries such as South Africa, Ghana, Mali and Sudan, the freeze on aid has disrupted health services and education programs, adversely affecting vulnerable populations.”

Dunn also noted the Trump administration’s action has placed at-risk humanitarian assistance to Venezuelan refugees in Columbia and others in Latin America.

“The suspension presents significant challenges for organizations like Lott Carey, which has been responding to human needs for 127 years and is currently active in 13 countries, providing assistance in education, health care, advocacy and capacity building,” he said.

“The abrupt withdrawal of USAID support places an immense burden on our resources and capacity to fill the void left behind.”

Executive order on foreign aid

Trump issued an executive order Jan. 20 stating, “It is the policy of United States that no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States.”  

The executive order called for a “90-day pause in United States foreign development assistance for assessment of programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a waiver Jan. 29, temporarily exempting “existing lifesaving humanitarian assistance programs” from the work stoppage during the review period.

However, with USAID staff furloughed and funding frozen, current and former agency officials told ABC News the ability of global field personnel to carry out lifesaving aid essentially has ceased for now.

Varied responses to action

Adam Russell Taylor, president of Sojourners, a Christian social justice organization, lashed out at the Trump administration for freezing USAID funds, suspending operations and furloughing employees.

“Ending USAID’s work around the world is both foreign policy malpractice and a deeply short-sighted economic move—not to mention a direct assault on the many commands from the Christian faith to love and protect the most vulnerable,” he wrote.

Ryan Denison, senior editor at Denison Ministries, offered a more nuanced response, writing “some waste and corruption are unavoidable given the scope and scale of USAID’s efforts, and the agency still does many truly great things throughout the world.”

“USAID attempted to build security by fostering dependency through a number of truly worthy endeavors—such as its work combatting global hunger, AIDS, malaria, and a host of other problems. However, its history also includes a number of acts of which we should be less proud,” Denison wrote.

For instance, USAID spent $12 billion in Syria to help people suffering from the civil war there, but “millions of dollars were stolen and diverted to armed combat groups instead of the refugees,” he stated.

“In other words, it falls right in line with most government programs in that it is plagued by corruption while still serving an important purpose.”

Review programs but don’t stop services

Eugene Cho, president and CEO of Bread for the World, a faith-based advocacy group focused on fighting hunger, agreed a review of USAID programs is appropriate, but he insisted it can be done without interrupting “lifesaving programs.”

“Moreover, in the long run, the related Stop-Work Order issued by the State Department will end up costing U.S. taxpayers, negatively affect U.S. influence globally, and, more importantly, have a devastating impact on the world’s most vulnerable people,” Cho stated.

“Among other essential programs, since the 1960s, U.S. foreign aid has been providing lifesaving nutrition assistance to tens of millions of people, specifically women and children, each year.

“Nutrition programs enable countries to improve the health of their populations and strengthen their economies while also supporting U.S. strategic interests and national security by building and maintaining relationships with partner countries and promoting regional stability.”

‘Come to the table’ and reason together

Jeremy Everett, founding executive director of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, struck a similar tone, applauding the work of dedicated USAID field personnel with vulnerable people worldwide while recognizing the need to continue to improve delivery systems.

“Ironically, the populations [agency field personnel] work with are much more likely to be forced to migrate if they are not being served by these USAID programs,” Everett said in an interview.

“So, if the goal is to reduce the migrant population at the border, then what we are doing now would be counterintuitive.”

Christians who are engaged in “sustained engagement” through mission work among vulnerable communities in impoverished nations should let elected representatives know they see the value of similar relationship building through global humanitarian aid programs, he noted.

Everett called for dialogue with the Trump administration and building on past success.

As a hopeful sign, he pointed out domestic poverty rates and food insecurity rates were at record lows during the first Trump administration, and international humanitarian initiatives by the United States “kept harsh rates of hunger at bay.”

“Let’s do it again,” he urged. “There are things we can do. Come to the table and work with us.”

La Convención Bautista Hispana de Texas y Fellowship Southwest se unieron a más de dos docenas de organizaciones religiosas en una demanda que cuestiona un cambio de política que permite a los funcionarios de inmigración entrar en iglesias y otros lugares sensibles.

El 20 de enero, una directiva del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional de EE. UU. rescindió las directrices para los funcionarios de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza y de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas que anteriormente restringían la aplicación de la ley en lugares sensibles como lugares de culto, escuelas y hospitales.

La demanda afirma que el cambio de política para la aplicación de la ley de inmigración viola tanto la Primera Enmienda como la Ley de Restauración de la Libertad Religiosa.

La demanda alega que permitir la aplicación de la ley de inmigración en lugares de culto impone una carga sustancial al libre ejercicio de la religión de los demandantes y no refleja los «medios menos restrictivos» para lograr «un interés gubernamental imperioso».

«Una acción de control de inmigración durante los servicios de culto, el trabajo ministerial u otras actividades congregacionales sería devastadora para sus prácticas religiosas», afirma la demanda.

«Destrozaría los espacios consagrados del santuario, frustraría el culto comunitario y debilitaría el alcance de los servicios sociales que son fundamentales para la expresión religiosa y la práctica espiritual de las congregaciones y los miembros de los demandantes».

El Instituto para la Defensa y Protección Constitucional de la Facultad de Derecho de Georgetown presentó la demanda (Iglesia Menonita de EE. UU. y otros contra el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional de EE. UU. y otros) el 11 de febrero en el Tribunal de Distrito de EE. UU. para el Distrito de Columbia en nombre de una amplia coalición cristiana y judía.

«Las acciones extremas de nuestro gobierno nos llaman a dar un paso adelante al reconocer que nuestra práctica de amar al prójimo supera nuestra postura tradicional de no resistencia», dijo Iris de Leon-Harshorn, de la Iglesia Menonita de EE. UU., en una llamada al mediodía con los medios de comunicación después de que se presentó la demanda.

Entre los demandantes se encuentran 12 organismos y representantes denominacionales nacionales, cuatro organismos denominacionales regionales y 11 asociaciones denominacionales e interdenominacionales.

Someter los lugares de culto a medidas de control de inmigración «sin orden judicial o circunstancias apremiantes» interfiere con la libertad de las congregaciones para practicar libremente su religión, dijo la abogada principal Kelsi Corkran.

La demanda es similar en muchos aspectos a una demanda anterior presentada por un grupo de congregaciones cuáqueras en el Tribunal de Distrito de los Estados Unidos para el Distrito de Maryland. La Cooperative Baptist Fellowship se unió a esa demanda la semana pasada.

Carga sustancial sobre el libre ejercicio de la religión

La última demanda afirma que el cambio en la política de lugares sensibles ya está suponiendo una carga sustancial para el libre ejercicio de la religión de los demandantes y su derecho a la «asociación expresiva».

«Las congregaciones están experimentando una disminución de la asistencia a los servicios religiosos y de la participación en los servicios sociales debido al temor a las medidas de control de la inmigración», afirma la demanda.

«Para los congregantes vulnerables que siguen asistiendo a los servicios religiosos, las congregaciones tienen que elegir entre exponerlos a ser arrestados o adoptar medidas de seguridad que están en tensión con sus deberes religiosos de acogida y hospitalidad».

La Convención Hispana Bautista de Texas es una «familia de iglesias dedicadas a servir a las poblaciones vulnerables y a ministrar a nuestras comunidades», dijo Jesse Rincones, director ejecutivo de la Convención.

«Valoramos profundamente el compromiso de larga data de nuestra nación de proteger el derecho constitucional de la iglesia local a llevar a cabo su misión bíblica sin interferencia del gobierno», dijo Rincones, que es pastor y abogado.

«La erosión de estas protecciones deja a nuestras congregaciones vulnerables a la intrusión del gobierno, interrumpiendo los servicios de culto, los funerales, los estudios bíblicos y otros ministerios vitales que sirven a nuestras comunidades».

Fellowship Southwest fomenta y fortalece «la misión compasiva y el trabajo profético de abogacía» de sus iglesias asociadas, dijo Stephen Reeves, director ejecutivo de Fellowship Southwest.

«Apoyamos una red activa que sirve a los migrantes todos los días, porque nos tomamos en serio las palabras de Jesús», dijo Reeves, que también es abogado.

«Toda iglesia debería poder seguir los mandatos divinos de amar a nuestro prójimo y acoger al extranjero sin temor a las intrusiones del ICE en espacios sagrados o a las represalias de funcionarios gubernamentales que no comparten nuestras convicciones religiosas».

«Todas las iglesias deben poder seguir los mandatos divinos de amar a nuestro prójimo y acoger al extranjero sin temor a las intrusiones del ICE en espacios sagrados o a las retribuciones de funcionarios gubernamentales que no comparten nuestras convicciones religiosas».

Convención Hispana Bautista de Texas and Fellowship Southwest joined more than two dozen religious organizations in a lawsuit challenging a policy change allowing immigration officers to enter churches and other sensitive locations.

On Jan. 20, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security directive rescinded guidelines for Customs and Border Protection and for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers that previously restricted enforcement in sensitive locations such as houses of worship, schools and hospitals.

The lawsuit asserts the change in policy for immigration enforcement violates both the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The suit claims allowing immigration enforcement at places of worship imposes a substantial burden on the plaintiffs’ free exercise of religion and does not reflect the “least restrictive means” to accomplish “a compelling government interest.”

“An immigration enforcement action during worship services, ministry work, or other congregational activities would be devastating to their religious practices,” the lawsuit states.

“It would shatter the consecrated spaces of sanctuary, thwart communal worship, and undermine the social service outreach that is central to religious expression and spiritual practice for Plaintiffs’ congregations and members.”

The Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law School filed the suit—Mennonite Church USA et al v. United States Department of Homeland Security et al—Feb. 11 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of a broad-based Christian and Jewish coalition.

“The extreme actions of our government call us to step up as we recognize that our practice of loving our neighbor outweighs our traditional stance of nonresistance,” Iris de Leon-Harshorn with the Mennonite Church USA said in a noon call with news media after the suit was filed.

Plaintiffs include 12 national denominational bodies and representatives, four regional denominational bodies and 11 denominational and interdenominational associations.

Subjecting places of worship to immigration enforcement actions “without judicial warrant or exigent circumstances” interferes with congregations’ freedom to freely practice their religion, lead counsel Kelsi Corkran said.

The suit is similar in many respects to an earlier suit brought by a group of Quaker congregations in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship joined in that suit last week.

Substantial burden on free exercise of religion

The latest lawsuit claims the change in the sensitive locations policy already is placing a substantial burden on the plaintiffs’ free exercise of religion and their right to “expressive association.”

“Congregations are experiencing decreases in worship attendance and social services participation due to fear of immigration enforcement action,” the lawsuit states.

“For the vulnerable congregants who continue to attend worship services, congregations must choose between either exposing them to arrest or undertaking security measures that are in direction tension with their religious duties of welcome and hospitality.”

Convención Hispana Bautista de Texas is a “family of churches dedicated to serving vulnerable populations and ministering to our communities,” said Jesse Rincones, executive director of Convención.

“We deeply value our nation’s longstanding commitment to protecting the local church’s constitutional right to carry out its biblical mission without government interference,” said Rincones, who is both a pastor and an attorney.

“The erosion of these protections leaves our congregations vulnerable to government intrusion, disrupting worship services, funerals, Bible studies and other vital ministries that serve our communities.”

Fellowship Southwest encourages and strengthens “the compassionate mission and prophetic advocacy work” of its partnering churches, said Stephen Reeves, executive director of Fellowship Southwest.

“We support an active network serving migrants every day, because we take the words of Jesus seriously,” said Reeves, who also is an attorney.

“Every church should be able to follow the divine mandates to love our neighbors and welcome the stranger without fear of ICE intrusions into sacred spaces or retribution from government officials who don’t share our faith convictions.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—President Donald Trump issued an executive order reinstating his version of the White House Faith Office and once again placing Florida pastor and longtime supporter Paula White-Cain in charge of the initiative.

Trump already announced both moves during a speech related to the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 6 but issued a formal executive order on Friday evening, Feb. 7.

“The executive branch wants faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship, to the fullest extent permitted by law, to compete on a level playing field for grants, contracts, programs, and other Federal funding opportunities,” the executive order read.

“The efforts of faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship are essential to strengthening families and revitalizing communities, and the Federal Government welcomes opportunities to partner with such organizations through innovative, measurable, and outcome-driven initiatives.”

The order appeared to acknowledge that the Trump administration is essentially replacing the existing White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which was created by former President George W. Bush’s administration and used by former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Trump left that office vacant for most of his first term before creating the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative in 2018 and appointing White-Cain to lead it in late 2019.

The new office, according to the order, is tasked with various projects, such as making recommendations to the president, advising various federal agencies and consulting with faith leaders who hold expertise in a broad range of areas, such as “strengthening marriage and family,” “lifting up individuals through work and self-sufficiency,” and “defending religious liberty.”

The order also mentioned prioritizing faith leaders with expertise in “combatting anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and additional forms of anti-religious bias.” It stated the Faith Office would work with the attorney general to “identify concerns raised by faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship about any failures of the executive branch to enforce constitutional and Federal statutory protections for religious liberty.”

The lines may be references to two other recent announcements from Trump—the creation of a task force on “anti-Christian bias,” which he mentioned on the campaign trail, as well as a new presidential task force dedicated to religious freedom.

In addition, the order encouraged the office to promote grant opportunities for religious organizations, “especially those inexperienced with public funding but that operate effective programs.”

In a separate statement, the White House announced White-Cain will resume leadership, and Jennifer S. Korn will serve as deputy assistant to the president and faith director of the office. White-Cain and Korn have spent the past few years working with the National Faith Advisory Board, a group founded as an attempt to continue work done by the faith office during Trump’s first term.

Mixed reaction to announcement

Several of Trump’s evangelical supporters celebrated the reestablishment of the office and the appointment of White-Cain, with Georgia megapastor Jentezen Franklin congratulating her in a post on social media site X.

Others, however, were quick to criticize the move. Americans United for Separation of Church and State condemned White-Cain’s appointment, saying she “was unfit to serve in the White House when Trump first appointed her in 2019 and she’s still unfit today—particularly in a position that could focus on combatting discrimination and advancing religious freedom for all.”

Americans United also accused White-Cain of being a “Christian Nationalist powerbroker” who’s spent much of her career operating in the shadows to influence public policies that discriminate against women, LGBTQ people and religious minorities, and the nomination of partisan judges who will support those policies.

The White House also announced Jackson Lane, who worked on Trump’s faith outreach team during the campaign, will serve as special assistant to the president and deputy director of faith engagement.

On social media, the White House promoted the new office alongside a photo of Trump surrounded by religious supporters as they prayed over the president. It was not immediately clear when the photograph was taken, but some in the picture were evangelical leaders who, like White, served as advisers during his first term, such as Franklin and Johnnie Moore, who is credited with organizing the informal but influential group of evangelical leaders who advised Trump during his first term.

Moore, a close confidante of White-Cain who was involved in Trump’s 2016 campaign, told Religion News Service via email in August 2023 he was focusing on projects trying to reduce polarization in the U.S. and had no plans to participate in Trump’s 2024 White House bid, saying he was “trying to avoid partisanship.”

However, during a faith-focused Trump campaign event just a week before Election Day, Moore appeared onstage alongside White-Cain, Korn and several other religious leaders as they prayed over Trump.

Reached by email after the announcement of the re-instated White House Faith Office, Moore did not immediately respond to questions about whether he plans to be involved with the second Trump administration.

The Faith Office announcement came as the Trump administration has spent its first three weeks publicly feuding with some religious groups that have criticized his early executive orders, which have included freezing the U.S. refugee program and cutting off international aid funds used by numerous religious organizations that do humanitarian work abroad.

Additionally, a group of Quakers and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship are suing the Trump administration. They assert, among other things, the administration violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act when it rescinded an internal government policy developed in 2011 that discouraged immigration raids on “sensitive locations” such as hospitals, schools and churches.

Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, has been locked in a war of words with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. After the prelates issued statements expressing concern about Trump’s executive orders, the vice president falsely accused the bishops of resettling “illegal immigrants” and of being more concerned about their “bottom line” than humanitarian work.

Similarly, billionaire Elon Musk, who runs the Department of Government Efficiency that has rapidly winnowed the federal government and all but shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, recently described federal funds for Lutheran aid groups as “illegal,” sparking a fiery rebuttal from the head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America debunking his claim.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Appearing at two events Feb. 6, both part of the festivities surrounding the National Prayer Breakfast, President Donald Trump spoke about the centrality of religious belief to the United States and announced he would create a new presidential commission on religious liberty.

“From the earliest days of our republic, faith in God has always been the ultimate source of the strength that beats in the hearts of our nation,” Trump said in his first appearance in front of a gathering of lawmakers in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall.

“We have to bring religion back. We have to bring it back much stronger.”

Later, at a separate National Prayer Breakfast gathering at the Washington Hilton hotel, Trump announced he would appoint Florida Pastor Paula White to lead his White House faith office, as she did at the end of the first Trump administration.

At the Capitol, talking to members of Congress from both parties, Trump expressed hope lawmakers will find common ground—specifically mentioning transgender rights, which he inveighed against during his presidential campaign.

He related a conversation with a transgender rights supporter who opposed the president’s recent executive order banning transgender women from women’s sports. While he didn’t agree with the person, Trump added, “He’s a good person, and just believes it.”

Trump, once identifying as a Presbyterian but in recent years calling himself a nondenominational Christian, closed his speech to lawmakers with an endorsement of religious belief.

“I really believe you can’t be happy without religion, without that belief,” Trump said.

The remarks came as his administration finds itself at odds with several religious groups that have objected to recent orders halting humanitarian aid, ending the U.S. refugee program and giving law enforcement officials permission to raid houses of worship in search of migrants.

Several administration figures, including Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance, have criticized U.S. Catholic bishops and other faith leaders for their use of federal funds.

Background for the two events

The National Prayer Breakfast, which has been held since 1953, was convened for most of its history by the International Foundation, a Christian group more familiarly referred to as “The Family,” and for decades met at the Washington Hilton.

Beginning in 2010, after the publication of journalist Jeff Sharlet’s 2008 book on the group, questions arose about how the breakfast granted access for conservative Christians to the White House and Congress.

In 2023, a new organization held its breakfast on Capitol Hill, while many of the previous organizers of the International Foundation continued to meet at the hotel.

Trump saved his announcements about the new religious liberty commission and the return of White for the crowd of thousands at the Hilton. After White introduced the president, he said, “This week, I’m also creating the White House faith office led by Pastor Paula White, who is so amazing.”

Trump did not give any other details about the commission, other than saying: “It’s going to be a very big deal, which will work tirelessly to uphold this most fundamental right. Unfortunately, in recent years, we’ve seen the sacred liberty threatened like never before in American history.”

The president also said he will create a task force, which will be overseen by Attorney General Pam Bondi, that will “eradicate anti-Christian bias,” making good on a promise he made on the campaign trail.

Trump pointed to his recent decision to pardon 23 anti-abortion protesters who were convicted of illegally blockading a reproductive health clinic in D.C. as evidence of his dedication to the cause.

President George W. Bush originally instituted the White House faith-based office as the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives to coordinate outreach to faith communities and help foster economic opportunity.

President Barack Obama recast it as the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, a name later reinstated by Joe Biden.

In the past, the director of the faith-based initiative has been involved with supporting national and Cabinet-level efforts to partner with religious and community groups to address social needs, from fighting the Ebola virus to feeding hungry schoolchildren.

In his first administration, Trump only set up his version of the office, under White, late in his administration, but White already had been filling some functions in connecting the White House to faith groups, mostly evangelical pastors.

Several groups push back

On Feb. 4, religious groups that help resettle refugees in the United States demonstrated outside the White House to protest the administration’s decision to bar refugees from the country and the administration’s alleged refusal to pay for already completed resettlement work.

Musk, the president’s adviser and head of the Department of Government Efficiency, has alleged—without evidence—that federal funding for various Lutheran organizations that perform humanitarian work is “illegal.”

Vance has chastised the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for joining with an array of religious groups that have condemned the president’s executive orders related to immigration, questioning the prelates’ motivations as rooted in a concern for their “bottom line.”

Several Quaker groups have filed a lawsuit aimed at overturning an executive order rescinding the sensitive-locations policy, which discouraged immigration enforcement agents from raiding schools, hospitals and churches. The groups say the order violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

On Feb. 5, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship joined the suit.

Trump spent his first full day in sparring with Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde, decrying her as a “so-called bishop” for a sermon at the Washington National Cathedral in which she pleaded with Trump to have mercy on transgender children and immigrants.

As they have in the past, atheist and secular groups criticized the prayer gatherings themselves as an inappropriate mixing of politics and religion. The Freedom From Religion Foundation Action Fund joined other groups in a letter urging members of Congress not to attend the breakfasts or related events.

In a separate letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, four members of Congress called the Statuary Hall event “an affront to the Establishment Clause” of the U.S. Constitution that “promotes division by excluding certain people while privileging others.”

“Just as there will always be prayer in school as long as there are math tests, there will always be prayer in the Capitol as long as there are tough votes,” Scott MacConomy, director of policy and government affairs for the Secular Coalition for America, told RNS.

“That doesn’t mean it should be institutionalized with an annual event inside the Capitol near the statue of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the ‘wall of separation’ between church and state.”

Richa Karmarkar and Adelle M. Banks contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (RNS)— Faith-based groups that partner with the federal government to resettle refugees are facing widespread layoffs and furloughs after President Donald Trump’s administration suspended the refugee program.

And according to one of the faith groups, the administration refuses to reimburse the organizations for humanitarian work performed before the president assumed office.

Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief, an evangelical Christian group that resettles refugees, said his organization continues to reel from several actions taken by Trump over the past two weeks.

The president all but froze the U.S. refugee program, save for rare exceptions, in an executive order shortly after taking office, a move that outraged the 10 groups that help the government resettle refugees—seven of which are faith-based.

Soerens said his office also received communication from the government on Jan. 24 stating World Relief no longer would be reimbursed for any work beyond that day. 

The news was devastating, Soerens said, because his organization typically maintains a 90-day commitment to every refugee it resettles, helping pay for rent, basic supplies and other resources during that time.

The sudden halt on funding meant World Relief staffers were left scrambling to figure out how to support the roughly 4,000 people the group had resettled over the past 90 days.

“For some, it was only another few weeks where we would have been covering rents,” Soerens said. “But for some that arrived a week before, we have three months’ worth of rent to figure out.”

Soerens said his group also is impacted by Trump’s executive order pausing foreign aid efforts, which halted work World Relief does abroad in partnership with local churches through an agreement with the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The combined result of the administration’s actions was a roughly $8 million shortfall for the group, and while World Relief has managed to raise $2 million in recent days—an effort, Soerens said, that was “like nothing we’ve ever done”—staff remains unsure how the organization will fund the rest.

“We’re having to make very difficult decisions, because we are going to prioritize rent checks over staffing,” he said, noting there have been furloughs throughout the organization in recent days.

Feds refusing reimbursement for work already done

Representatives for Church World Service, one of the other faith-based refugee resettlement agencies, said the federal government is also refusing to reimburse their organization for work done prior to Trump assuming office.

“We’ve been unable to access federal reimbursements for critical program costs, and that includes costs that were incurred prior to the issuance of the executive order,” said Mary Elizabeth Margolis, a spokesperson for Church World Service.

“We still have outstanding reimbursements for services rendered under contract with the federal government that are not being paid back to us.”

Margolis said, as at World Relief, the result has been furloughs throughout the organization, with administrators hoping the money saved will allow the remaining staff to care for resettled refugees. That includes making sure they are “not left homeless or without access to medical care”—very real concerns for some families they work with, she said.

At a rally outside the White House in support of the refugee groups on Feb. 4, several furloughed Church World Service workers joined the protest. Speakers, such as Sharon Stanley-Rea, the head of Church World Service’s national office, said more than two-thirds of its national staff had been furloughed, including 100 percent of the D.C. office. She also pointed out that some of the staff were refugees themselves.

On Feb. 3, Elon Musk, the billionaire head of the Department of Government Efficiency and owner of the social media platform X, quoted a post from another X user detailing a grant provided to Church World Service that appeared geared toward assisting refugees abroad with their applications.

Legal immigrants are typically vetted over the course of years, but Musk suggested in his post, without evidence, the Church World Service grant was part of a broader redirection of funds—“billions of dollars,” he claimed—for “facilitating illegal immigration.”

“Is this America, when we’re cutting off refugee aid for just rental assistance and food for three months?” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who also spoke at the protest.

Reminding Trump of family history

He then noted the Trump family’s own immigration history.

“The Trump administration has decided to slam the door shut on refugees,” Raskin said. “What a betrayal of America and our values. Nobody slammed the door shut in the face of the Trump family from Germany. Nobody slammed the door shut in the face of Melania Trump, who got an O1 and EB1 visa for extraordinary ability.

“Nobody slammed the door on Elon Musk, who came from racist, apartheid South Africa, who came here on an F1 student visa,” the congressman added, before referencing a Washington Post report indicating Musk also worked in the United States illegally as he launched his entrepreneurial career.

The State Department did not respond to a request to confirm claims by Church World Service and the other agencies, or explain the rationale behind the halted funds.

In an emailed statement, Noel Andersen, the national field director for Church World Service, said the financial woes hinder the ability to do work inspired by his faith.

“Part of living out my faith is through advocating for welcoming policies alongside immigrants and refugees, consistent with the Christian tradition and sacred texts,” he said.

“As our organization goes through furloughs, our capacity to fulfill our mission has been severely undercut, which will have a long-lasting harmful impact to those refugees who desperately need services that will reverberate across our communities and congregations.”

Significant layoffs at several organizations

The story is the same at several other refugee resettlement groups, with some faring worse than others. Reached via text message, Mark Hetfield, head of HIAS, a Jewish group, said his organization has laid off staff or terminated their positions to handle the financial strain.

Hetfield framed the efforts as an attempt to scrape together whatever resources HIAS still has for the refugees it has committed to, while also voicing frustration with the Trump administration’s actions.

“For resettled refugees the government must live up to that obligation, as must we,” Hetfield said.

Episcopal Migration Ministries, a smaller refugee resettlement group, announced significant layoffs Friday. Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe announced 22 staff members whose positions were funded by federal grants would be laid off, leaving the ministry with just 14 staff to carry out services for “forced migrants” who arrived just before Trump took office.

Sarah Shipman, director of Episcopal Migration Ministries, told RNS: “The end of federal funding for Episcopal Migration Ministries does not mean an end for EMM. While we do not know exactly how this ministry will evolve in our church’s future, we remain steadfast in our commitment to stand with migrants and to our congregations who serve them.”

The agencies stressed the staff reductions are ultimately a symptom of a much larger issue: the refugees they work with, many of whom have fled violence and religious persecution for a new life in the U.S., will go underserved.

“They are the people who have pending asylum cases that may lose access to their lawyers,” said Margolis of Church World Service. “They are families who need emergency rental support, who may end up homeless. They are kids who come to our offices to get coats and hats because it’s cold outside.”

Now, she said, those families “might not have access to those basic supplies.”

Catholic Relief Services, which is the top recipient of funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, urged supporters to contact members of Congress to ask them to intervene with Trump to ensure the Catholic agency would be able to provide clean water, food assistance and medical assistance normally funded through the U.S.’ foreign aid program.

“This freeze will be detrimental to millions of our sisters and brothers who need access to lifesaving humanitarian, health and development assistance,” the organization, an arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote regarding major changes to USAID announced in recent days. “U.S. foreign aid is not a handout. It has real impact on human life and dignity and advances U.S. national interests.”

The organization assured supporters that “constituents’ voices have significant influence on congressional members’ decision-making,” especially when messages are personalized.

WASHINGTON (RNS) —Nace Lanier was at home watching a movie with his family when he received an emergency text from Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport, where he is senior chaplain.

After years of preparing for a rare and forbidding moment, the Southern Baptist minister headed to Reagan National. He joined a team responding to the midair collision of a regional passenger jet and a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter, killing 67 people on the two aircraft, with no survivors.

“We have trained and prepared for an incident through the years,” Lanier wrote in an email to RNS. “Working with the staff and communicating with the Emergency coordinators allowed us to quickly set up a location that was safe, quiet, and as comfortable as possible for the friends and family.”

The impromptu arrangements are aimed at giving family members dealing with unexpected personal tragedy a place to “gather physically and emotionally” and have some privacy as they confronted the suddenness of personal tragedy, he explained.

“You listen far more than say anything,” Lanier said.

As an airport chaplain, he offers pastoral care in an array of mostly unforeseen circumstances.

“Being present is the key ministry gift we give to those we minister,” he said.

He declined to discuss particulars about his conversations, but said he was working with a team of people of other religions whom he could contact when he received a request for support from people who did not share his faith.

“I was a part of a team to holistically care for the hurting and confused,” he said. “I was able to pray with those who requested prayer. It was an honor to serve with their permission by holding their hands and praying to our God who was present but at that time silent.”

Training a constant part of life for airport chaplains

Training for the what-ifs of air travel is a constant part of an airport chaplain’s professional life.

Sometimes they use a “tabletop exercise,” where trainees talk through scenarios, said Michael Zaniolo, the senior chaplain at Chicago O’Hare International Airport and the president of the National Conference of Catholic Airport Chaplains.

Other times, airports hold full drills, in which fire officials set an airplane-shaped simulator on fire and volunteers portray passengers who receive aid from first responders, including chaplains.

“Every time they have this, they ask us to bring our chaplaincy team in order that we can train some of our chaplains,” Zaniolo said. It allows them to pinpoint how they might help if a disaster occurs. “What do you do at the rescue site? What do you do with the fire personnel or the morgue people? How does a chaplain fit into that?”

Rodrick Burton, president of the St. Louis Airport Interfaith Chaplaincy, said other traumatic situations can help chaplains also prepare for aviation disasters.

Called to help the family of a student killed in a 2022 school shooting, he counseled them on having a spokesperson to help handle media requests as well as unwelcome social media posts.

More recently, he’s assisted flood victims in his area when police chaplains sought additional aid.

“You can actually go and be present in other places that can also prepare you,” he said.

In the same way, Burton said he can count on other local first-responder chaplains.

“God forbid if this were to happen to St. Louis. There’s not enough of the airport chaplains,” said Burton, who hosted the International Association of Civil Aviation Chaplains when it met in his city in 2023. “So, we would call on the other hospital chaplains and police chaplains in the area to man that center 24 hours.”

Need for teamwork emphasized

All three chaplains spoke of the need to work in teams, helping fellow responders and fellow chaplains in the times of greatest need, usually in a center that has been set up to assist those who have become disaster victims, their families and friends.

Burton said other airport workers may also need a listening ear, whether of the airport chaplain or clergy of another faith to whom the chaplain can refer them.

“There’s the baggage crew that was waiting for the plane to land,” he said. “Other employees at the airport will be affected.”

Some may reach out for help, he said, long after the ambulances and fire trucks have left and an airport has returned to a sense of normalcy.

Lanier, who also directs the chapel at Dulles International Airport, said he is working with the part-time chaplain at Dulles to support family and friends of the crash victims.

“But we are just now turning our attention to the direct care of first responders and the many airport workers that have been tirelessly supporting this crisis,” he said.

“We have been working alongside them but will now be more available to them as they begin to process all that has occurred.”

Airport chaplains also are prepared for passengers who die from natural causes while traveling, and other more ordinary situations.

“I have been called in to help the airport with prior emergency situations such as when people have passed away at the airport,” said Lanier, who pastored two congregations before becoming Reagan National’s chaplain. “But it does not compare to a mass casualty event of this nature and size.”

Zaniolo, who didn’t hear of the midair collision until he woke up Thursday, said he planned to check in with staffers at his airport who may be affected by the crash over the Potomac River.

“Like any family, when there’s a tragic accident or sudden death, it’s a traumatic thing, and people need to talk and process it, some more than others,” said Zaniolo, who is in his 25th year at O’Hare.

“They might know some of the people that were on board, or they might know some of the people in the crew.”

Self-care vital for chaplains

The chaplains know to train, too, to take care of themselves so they can better take care of others.

“You have to learn about managing your own emotions in these crises,” Burton said. “Because if you’re not well, or you’re overwhelmed, you can’t help people that are overwhelmed.”

Zaniolo said chaplains at Chicago’s airports have both a “chaplaincy team” reflective vest and a “go-kit” that has holy oil, prayer books and rosary beads to share with Catholics should a crisis arise. But the small knapsack also includes space for a snack and some water for the chaplain.

“That’s the No. 1 thing that they tell everybody who responds to something: Make sure you’re hydrated, make sure that you’re not running on empty, because then you become a victim,” he said.

Lanier said he already has been putting advice of that sort into practice.

“I listened to the Emergency Coordinator at 6 a.m. to go home,” he said. “I was able to take a nap and shower, then arrive back at 11. I was more refreshed and able to attend to the needs of others—plus encourage others to do the same.

“I have been in constant prayer throughout, so I believe God has strengthened me during this time.”

ALTADENA, Calif. (RNS)—George Van Alstine recalls having to evacuate his Pasadena, Calif., home as flames from the Eaton fire drew closer. He’d been assured Altadena Baptist Church, where he is associate pastor, still was standing.

But by the following morning, his grandson sent him video of the church building engulfed in flames.

The footage was “dramatic and sad,” Van Alstine said. He could hear his grandson crying as he captured flames emerging out of a church window.

“We never expected the fire to sweep across the center of Altadena like that,” said Van Alstine, 88, whose home survived.

On Jan. 24, Van Alstine walked past the rubble and charred debris of the church. He observed the bell tower that remained intact, and approached the gutted Altadena Children’s Center, which served as a day care on the church property for more than 40 years.

He pointed to what used to be his office, where he stored a vast collection of books and where he spent time writing the church newsletter.

The Eaton fire consumed the sanctuary of Altadena Baptist Church, one of at least a dozen houses of worship destroyed in the Eaton and Palisades fires in Los Angeles County.

The fire also destroyed the homes of about 20 church families and forced approximately 20 others to vacate their houses due to ash and smoke exposure.

“The family journeys are going to be hard. We have some older people whose family wealth is tied up in their houses. Rebuilding in Altadena is going to be a lot more expensive. … Property taxes are going to be a lot higher,” Van Alstine said. “Rebuilding is going to be fits and starts.”

‘A test  of faith’

Debra Blake, the deacon chair for Altadena Baptist, lost her home of nearly 30 years to the Eaton fire.

“This is life, and for me, I don’t even see it as a step back. It’s actually a test. He tests those he loves. I just have the faith. There’s a purpose for this, and we’re going to grow and move on from this,” Blake said.

Included in the destruction was a vault chronicling the history of Altadena Baptist Church, a merger with a Swedish Baptist church that dates back to 1920. The church is part of an interfaith network that administered a food pantry and did outreach for the unhoused.

“It’s a test of faith, right? We’ve said for years: ‘The church is not the building. It’s the people.’ Now’s our chance to prove it,” Van Alstine said.

In historically diverse Altadena, where more than 9,000 structures were destroyed in the fire, clergy and faith leaders are reeling from the scale of devastation.

Some are mourning the loss of their buildings. Others are trying to reach a dispersed and demoralized congregation. Most have multiple congregants who have lost homes. All are facing tough questions about their future.

First AME Pasadena still stands but the homes of at least 54 of the church’s families burned to the ground. Another 12 families can no longer live in their fire-damaged homes. Church leaders were still trying to locate a number of their seniors who only had landlines, Senior Pastor Larry E. Campbell said.

“Our first service that we had (after the fire), we questioned God. Then we came to the conclusion (that) it was OK to question God and even be mad at God,” Campbell told RNS. “We had to really go through that as a congregation.”

The city’s first African Methodist Episcopal Church, founded in 1887, First AME Pasadena has about 425 members, Campbell said.

Since the Eaton Fire wreaked havoc to the east of the parish, the church has hosted a free legal clinic with representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency on hand and has served as a distribution center for those affected by the fires.

A day of service was held outside the church on Saturday, with hygiene kits and grocery bags arranged by a range of organizations such as the South Los Angeles Muslim Council and the Halal Project.

Focus on serving and rebuilding

The Council of Bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church held a news conference on Thursday at the Pasadena parish to express its commitment to help rebuild parishioners’ homes.

Bishop Francine Brookins said that while their focus is on the Black community, they are committed to a “redevelopment process that encompasses the entire community.”

Brookins said the council was in Southern California for a previously scheduled meeting and decided to tour Altadena after realizing that many church families were impacted.

“I could see brand-new homes being built. I could see intentional community developments where grocery stores and gardens and intergenerational community partnerships are built, and where Altadena goes back to its dream,” Brookins said.

“Altadena was a dream community … and it was intentional about bringing people of all backgrounds and all faiths together.”

At the news conference, attendees such as Drexell Johnson of the Young Black Contractors Association urged FEMA to be more transparent in how it selects developers and contractors because “it’s almost impossible for Black people and Black contractors to get a fair shake.”

NAACP Pasadena Branch President Brandon Lamar also attended the news conference and stressed that funding should go to Black families.

“These are not just homes. These are generational homes. This is generational wealth, and they are gone.

“We must make sure that we come together as a community and make sure that every house … is rebuilt into the capacity that we will be here for generations to come,” Lamar said.

Lamar said the NAACP Pasadena Branch is advocating locally and nationally “to make sure that everybody understands that we will not accept any vultures in our community.”

Campbell, the pastor of First AME in Pasadena, said he knows “we are going to lose some people.” Campbell noted some seniors likely will go live elsewhere with their children. That’s why, he said, they’re looking for ways to connect their members with senior housing in the community.

“There are some who are not going to be able to rebuild, but we want to keep them in the area,” Campbell said.

Center the needs of community residents

Connie Larson DeVaughn, lead pastor of Altadena Baptist, sees rebuilding efforts as an opportunity for the church to center the needs of Altadena residents.

Decades ago, the church addressed the need for child care with the Altadena Children’s Center.

With rents soaring in Los Angeles, Larson DeVaughn said, church members will discuss a range of possibilities, including providing low-income housing on their property to be proactive.

For now, the church is accepting financial donations to help church members who were displaced and to go toward the rebuilding of their new structure.

In a Sunday worship service, Larson DeVaughn read notes of encouragement from children and announced donations from other churches during the service, held in the bottom floor of nearby Highlands Church in La Crescenta.

Church members grieved as one recalled visiting his childhood homes that were all lost in the fire. They also highlighted good news, with one member sharing she found an apartment after losing her home to the fire.

In tears, Larson DeVaughn delivered a prayer for those whose lives have been disrupted.

“We pray for all the children who are scared and have nightmares from fleeing in the night. We pray for the elders who struggle with changes and for everyone in between,” Larson DeVaughn said.

“We pray for our own Altadena Baptist Church for direction and vision. We pray for the decisions that need to be made and the resources needed.”

Parishioners stood up, raised their arms and recited lyrics of “Jesus, Draw Me Ever Nearer.”

“As I labour through the storm/ You have called me to this passage/ And I’ll follow, though I’m worn,” they sang.

President Donald Trump’s executive orders directing public funds to support “educational choice” and ending funding for curriculum perceived to promote “anti-American ideologies” drew swift and strongly worded responses.

“It is the policy of my Administration to support parents in choosing and directing the upbringing and education of their children,” Trump stated in his executive order, “Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families,” issued Jan. 29.

The order—issued during “School Choice Week”—directs the Secretary of Education within 60 days to issue guidance about how states can use federal funds to “support K-12 educational choice initiatives.” It also instructs him to prioritize “education freedom” in discretionary grant programs.

The directive also includes orders to the secretaries of Health and Human Services, Defense and the Interior related to “education choice.”

The order to the Secretary of State specifically instructs him to review ways military-connected families can use Department of Defense funds “to attend the schools of their choice, including private, faith-based, or public charter schools.”

Trump’s executive order praises states that have “enacted universal K-12 scholarship programs, allowing families—rather than the government—to choose the best educational setting for their children.”

He issued the order one day after the Texas Senate Committee on Education K-16 heard testimony on—and endorsed—a bill that would create an educational savings account program designed to help parents pay for their children’s private-school education with public funds.

‘Public funds … for public uses’

Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, said her agency “adamantly opposes” the Trump executive order, “which purports to divert taxpayer funds away from public schools and other federally funded programs to private schools, including to private religious schools.”

“Students across the country rely on public schools as the only education system where their freedom of religion and other civil rights are guaranteed,” Tyler said.

“Public funds should be for public uses. The government should not compel taxpayers to furnish funds in support of religion, regardless of whether they adhere to that religion or not.”

Rather than meeting the nation’s educational needs, she characterized the executive order as “another example of the Trump administration making a grab for power that puts specific private interests over public interest and violates our constitutional order.”

“As people of faith, we celebrate our country’s freedom of religion and oppose attempts to entangle government in religious matters in this way,” Tyler said.

“Religious education is best left to houses of worship and other religious institutions that are funded with the voluntary contributions of adherents of those faiths, free from federal funding and the accompanying strings.”

‘Part of the Project 2025 playbook’

Similarly, Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, emphasized the need to direct public funds to public schools, not private religious schools.

“Rather than funding private religious schools that can discriminate and indoctrinate, Trump should focus on providing adequate resources to our country’s public schools that are open to all students and serve 90 percent of America’s children,” Laser said.

School voucher programs “only provide ‘school choice’ for a select few, primarily wealthy families whose children never attended public schools in the first place, and for the private, predominantly religious, schools that can pick and choose which students to accept,” she said.

Expanding private school voucher programs is “part of the Project 2025 playbook for undermining our public education system and our democracy,” she asserted.

“Christian nationalists want to divert public money to private religious schools, even as they continue to strive to impose their narrow religious beliefs on public schoolchildren,” Laser said.

“Parents who care about their children’s education and taxpayers who care about quality public schools that are the building blocks of our communities should vehemently oppose this scheme.”

‘White Christian nationalist disinformation’

Laser also strongly criticized another Trump executive order, “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schools.” The order asserts “parents have witnessed schools indoctrinate their children in radical, anti-American ideologies while deliberately blocking parental oversight.”

Laser called the executive order “an attack on our public schools” that “seeks to turn them into re-education camps for white Christian nationalist disinformation.”

The executive order calls for the creation of a strategy for eliminating federal funds “for illegal and discriminatory treatment and indoctrination in K-12 schools, including based on gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology.”

It also calls for reestablishing the President’s Advisory 1776 Commission to promote “patriotic education.” The commission was created during the first Trump administration and terminated by President Joe Biden.

Laser asserted the order would “advance narrow Christian nationalist beliefs about gender and a white-washed American history.”

“We know from last time that this commission is bent on tearing down the separation of church and state instead of lifting it up as an American original, a founding principle of this nation,” she said.

In contrast, Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, insisted “America’s public education system is a disaster,” and Trump’s order helps to “bring sanity back to America’s schools.”

“What has happened in American education is a travesty that calls for a powerful and decisive response. Fortunately, President Trump has shown he is up to the challenge,” Schilling said.

“Our tax dollars should only go towards providing kids with a real education, not teaching them to discriminate based on race or confusing them about basic biology.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—About 1 million TikTok users have viewed a video posted on the social media platform Jan. 22 warning people away from the Manna Food Center distribution at Glenmont United Methodist Church, just outside the nation’s capital in Maryland, claiming the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency had been present there.

The problem? It isn’t true.

Kelly Grimes, pastor of the multicultural church, which shares its sanctuary with Spanish- and French-speaking congregations, told RNS it took a few days to track down the truth.

A man confessed he had spotted what he thought were unmarked law enforcement vehicles and panicked. He had no indication ICE had been there. Another man made the TikTok video, leaving Grimes and food distribution leaders to deal with the fear and fallout.

Grimes is one of several leaders of houses of worship who spoke to RNS about fighting misinformation about potential ICE raids, trying to walk with their congregants, even as attendance is taking a hit.

Asylum-seeker arrested at Georgia church

The Trump administration has promised to end a policy preventing ICE from arresting immigrants at houses of worship, schools and hospitals. So far, the only reported ICE arrest at a house of worship came during a worship service at Iglesia Fuente de Vida (Fountain of Life Church) in Tucker, Ga.,

Wilson Velásquez, an asylum-seeker who entered the United States in September 2022 with his wife and kids after facing threats from gangs in Honduras, was attending the church when his ICE ankle monitor began beeping, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. When he stepped outside to avoid disturbing the service, he was arrested by ICE agents.

ICE did not immediately respond to an RNS request for information about why Velásquez was arrested.

Besides Velásquez, at least 20 others were arrested in the Atlanta area Sunday, all of them asylum-seekers with ankle monitors who had arrived in the United States between 2021 and 2023, according to Atlanta-area Spanish-language journalist Mario Guevara, who spoke to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Many of those arrested had valid work permits.

“We’re all in shock,” said Agustin Quiles, a director of community affairs and government relations for the Florida Fellowship of Hispanic Councils and Evangelical Institutions.

Quiles said his group was still working on a response, but that they were most concerned about children who would be impacted by the policy change.

“What are we going to do with the thousands of children that are left behind?” he asked.

Megachurch pastor seeks to assure worshippers

Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, who advised President Donald Trump on immigration during his first term, told RNS he had been assured by “those that know” that churches will not be raided by ICE and suggested anyone arrested in a church would be “the worst of the worst.”

“I’ve seen Tom (Homan) cry regarding the loss of immigrant lives, especially little kids,” Rodriguez said of the White House border czar’s “great heart.”

Rodriguez said he is trying to address misinformation, as some pastors who are members of the conference have reported lower Sunday attendance.

At his own megachurch in Sacramento, Calif., Rodriguez assured attendees ICE raids “will not happen in our church.” Despite his media appearances supporting Trump’s actions against illegal immigration, Rodriguez told the church, “I do not need to know who is documented or undocumented.”

He added he would continue to fight for a pathway to citizenship for “Dreamers,” people without legal status brought to the country as children, and to legalize “those who have been here for decades, those who have worked hard, who are not dependent on government subsidies, who have never even received a parking ticket, who love Jesus, and who love this country.”

Coalition helps immigrants know their rights

Gabriel Salguero, president and founder of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, held a webinar on Trump’s executive orders attended by 500 evangelical Christian leaders, a much higher turnout than the coalition’s webinars typically draw.

The coalition shared guidance, advising congregations to train a spokesperson to communicate clearly and respectfully to deescalate with ICE agents and to train children’s pastors on how to respond if a raid happens while children are separated from their parents for the service.

The group is also distributing “Know Your Rights” cards in multiple languages for congregants and teaching congregations themselves about their legal rights, clarifying they have to allow ICE to enter into public worship spaces, even when they don’t have a warrant, but not church schools.

But Salguero said pastors’ concerns don’t stop at the church property line.

“Even if there are not raids in churches, one of the concerns is that ICE agents will be parked near churches waiting,” Salguero said.

Salguero also said, in addition to supporting congregations, the coalition would continue its advocacy for immigration enforcement that targets violent criminals instead of families.

Quakers file lawsuit over policy change

Five Quaker groups have taken a different tack, filing a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and newly confirmed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over the change in the sensitive-locations policy.

The suit charges the court should declare unconstitutional any policy allowing immigration enforcement at or near houses of worship without strict limits. The groups argued the policy change placed a substantial burden on their religious exercise.

Catholic bishops have made public statements in support of immigrants, advocating for policy changes and announcing that they are spreading know-your-rights information, but RNS inquiries to diocesan offices about any further preparations were declined or went unanswered.

Imam Musa Kabba, who leads Masjid-ur-Rahmah, a large multicultural mosque in the Bronx with a majority West African immigrant population, told RNS the mosque is educating immigrant members in their rights.

He added: “We’re praying to our creator, our God Allah. We pray more that he might protect us. He might show us a way to get out of this, all terrible.”

Kabba is also advising his members to “do the right things,” to continue going to the masjid and work.

“We don’t have any bad people in our mosque,” he said, but, he acknowledged, “you can’t stop the government.”

Kabba is calling on the “good people who are close to” Trump to remind him of his immigrant roots in his own family and all of the immigrants who have come to the United States because “their country is hard.”

“He might listen to them,” he said.

‘The fear is real’

Whether Trump will hear anything from his allies in Congress is unclear.

When asked by Migrant Insider, a Substack that reports on migration issues on Capitol Hill and the White House, whether churches should “be sanctuaries from immigration agents,” several Democratic senators and Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski expressed support for the previous policy that had prevented arrests at churches.

Five other Republican senators seemed to indicate they needed to give the matter more thought, while others expressed strong support for the policy change.

Just across the border in Maryland, where Grimes is working to pick up the pieces from the TikTok misinformation, she emphasized “the fear is real,” explaining her congregation knows those who have been detained who are in the country legally.

 “As the United Methodist Church, we have social principles that welcome the stranger. So what ICE is doing, and especially their methodology, just totally goes against what we as the United Methodist Church believe,” she said.

ICE is not welcome on her campus.

“We’re following the mandate we’ve been given by Christ,” she said.

“There’s always going to be people who as soon as they hear ICE, they’re never going to that space again. And I don’t blame them.”

Jalil Dawood, pastor of the Arabic Church of Dallas, understands the plight of refugees. He wishes President Donald Trump—for whom he voted three times—understood, as well.

Trump issued an executive order suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program “until such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.”

Dawood—who fled Iraq to escape violence and persecution before he resettled in the United States as a refugee in 1982—sees that as a missed opportunity for the United States to be the “shining city on a hill” President Ronald Reagan envisioned.

“Be a voice for the voiceless, the persecuted and the oppressed. … That will make America great again,” Dawood said.

He still considers himself “an enthusiastic supporter” of Trump. Dawood applauded the conservative judicial appointments Trump made in his first term as president, and he supports Trump’s positions on abortion, gender identity, national security and illegal immigration.

However, he believes the United States has a responsibility to welcome properly vetted victims of persecution—particularly persecuted Christians.

“The leader of the world can execute the justice and mercy of God,” said Dawood, founder of World Refugee Care, a small Texas-based nonprofit organization that offers spiritual and physical aid to refugees.

Refugees  can ‘be blessed and be a blessing’

Trump’s executive order states: “The United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees.”

Churches can help reduce the burden on the government by sponsoring refugees, providing them with short-term support until they are able to provide for themselves and their families, Dawood said. But they need a system that offers them that opportunity.

He agrees refugees have a responsibility to become assimilated, and he sees the need for “balance” in considering security issues and compassion for people escaping persecution.

However, refugees who work hard, pay their taxes and obey the laws can “be blessed and be a blessing” to the United States, rather than a drain on society, Dawood asserted.

Trump and other elected leaders need to be reminded refugee policies “have human consequences,” a statement the Burma Advocacy Group released on Jan. 24 said.

The group—which focuses particularly on displaced Burmese nationals who have fled Myanmar after a military coup in February 2021—asserted Trump’s executive action ignores the “solid contributions” refugees have made to the United States.

“Burma adult refugees have created new businesses across our country and have provided a trustworthy workforce in the communities where they live,” the group stated. “They bring with them core religious values rooted in their Christian, Buddhist and Muslim faiths that strengthen our moral fiber as a nation.”

‘Light of hope has been extinguished’

The Burma Advocacy Group—led by Roy Medley, executive director emeritus of the American Baptist Churches USA—noted refugees “are subjected to a thorough vetting by U.S. Homeland Security before they are approved for resettlement” and undergo cultural orientation to help them assimilate.

“Just two year ago, a light of hope shone again in Thailand when the Thai government, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the U.S. government agreed to again resettle Burma nationals—Rohingya, Christian, Buddhist and other, who have been in the camps there,” the group stated.

“The Burma Advocacy Group was there to witness the thorough effort of all three bodies to vet those eligible for resettlement.”

However, “that light of hope has been extinguished” by Trump’s executive order, the group stated.

“Families that have bought tickets for their resettlement flights awoke on Jan. 22 to the news that all flights had been cancelled and no new arrangements were to be made,” the group stated. “This is a blow to those on the cusp of long-awaited resettlement who had been thoroughly vetted and approved for entry.”

The executive order also directly affects the level of care provided in refugee camps. The Karen Information Center reported health care services were suspended Jan. 27 in refugee camps operated by the International Rescue Committee along the Thailand-Myanmar border.

The Burma Advocacy Group also pointed to the impact of another executive order halting Temporary Protected Status for migrants who seek to enter the United States to escape violence and persecution.

“Not only do these presidential executive actions lead to despair within Malaysia, India and the camps in Thailand; it also leads to despair among the Burma nationals here in this country, whose hope has been to be reunited with family members in the promise of freedom and security that America offers,” the group stated.

When refugee resettlement was curtailed during the first Trump administration, resettlement agencies had to lay off staff and close offices.

The Burma Advocacy Group pointed to the long-term impact the latest executive orders will have on the United States’ future ability to respond to the urgent needs of refugees in crisis.

“We have seen in the past four years how difficult it is to rebuild the components for the regulated, compassionate and carefully vetted resettlement of those who have fled persecution and war waged against them by despotic, anti-democratic forces that are guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity,” the group stated.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The first March for Life in the second Trump administration roared their approval as President Trump appeared by video and Vice President JD Vance spoke to them live from a stage erected on the National Mall on Jan. 24.

“I want more babies in the United States of America,” Vance told a chilly but enthusiastic crowd sprinkled with red MAGA hats. “I want beautiful young men and women who are eager to welcome them into the world and eager to raise them.”

Vance said the new administration would focus on making “it easier for young moms and dads to afford to have kids.” He also touted Trump’s pardon Thursday of 23 anti-abortion activists, some of whom had been prosecuted for blockading an abortion clinic and sentenced for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.

Trump, in a pre-recorded video, said, “It was my honor to grant a full and complete pardon to Paula (Harlow) and many others who were the victims of this horrific weaponization.”

Many at the march gave Trump and Vance glowing reviews for the administration’s opposition to abortion and belief in two distinct genders.

“I would give (the new administration) an A-plus-plus-plus-plus,” said Nabil Nour, a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod minister who said he had frequently raised money for a crisis pregnancy center with a long-distance bicycle campaign.

“They have the vision, not on earthly living, but on heavenly living,” he said of the Republican politicians who spoke at the rally.

GOP ‘slipped a little bit’

Trump and Vance have supported government funding for in vitro fertilization and continuing the availability of mifepristone, a drug used in medical abortions as well as some types of high blood sugar, and said during the 2024 campaign that Trump would veto a national abortion ban if it landed on his desk.

Addressing the crowd, Lila Rose, the president of advocacy group Live Action, who last year said she would not vote for Trump because of his abortion views but later endorsed him, renewed her call to “abolish abortion” but did not criticize Trump or Vance. Instead, she praised Trump for the pardons of anti-abortion activists.

In an interview, Patrick Stanton, an activist who stands outside Philadelphia abortion clinics “every day” to preach “the message of chastity and pro-life,” said that Vance “ just needs to be educated” on IVF.

Nevertheless, Stanton expressed concern the anti-abortion plank was removed from the Republican Party platform at the GOP convention in July, saying they “slipped a little bit.”

He said that concern prompted him to come to Washington for the march, even as he and others from Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Jenkintown, Penn., have been demonstrating at the statehouse in Harrisburg to influence Pennsylvania lawmakers to ban abortion in the state.

Stanton, who said he knows a few of those pardoned personally, had enthusiastic praise for Trump’s pardons.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs decision in 2022, March for Life organizers also have encouraged anti-abortion activists to focus their attention on statehouses, where decisions over the legality of abortion are now being made.

As protesters arrived at the national march, they had to contend with an extensive security screening by the Secret Service around the perimeter of the rally. Once inside, they heard from a series of Republicans, with organizers noting that this year was the first time the Senate Majority leader and the Speaker of the House both addressed the marchers.

‘Entering a new era’

“Now we have President Donald J. Trump back in the White House, we are entering a new era,” Johnson told the crowd. “I don’t know if you saw his executive order on gender, but it defines life as beginning at conception rather than birth.”

He touted the House’s passage of the Born Alive Survivors Protection Act on Thursday, which would require medical personnel to sustain an infant’s life if it survived an attempted abortion. It had earlier failed to pass a cloture vote in the Senate, with Democrats holding the bill would not increase protections for infants while increasing risk for providers.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose state is one of the few to have defeated an abortion rights ballot amendment since the fall of Roe, told the crowd: “ We were told since Dobbs by people, political consultants, pundits, many people that are more establishment Republicans, that standing for the right to life was somehow terrible politics, you wouldn’t get elected, all this other stuff. Well, I can tell you, I’m proof that that’s not true.”

Some prominent religious leaders in the crowd were cautious in their judgments of the new administration. Metropolitan Tikhon, who leads the Orthodox Church in America, told RNS, “It’s a little too soon” to evaluate the new administration’s approach, but “it does seem like the direction that they’re going in is to be positive for the pro-life movement.”

Bishop Joseph Strickland, who led the Diocese of Tyler before being removed by Pope Francis after a formal investigation of his management, told RNS, “It’s a real opportunity with the new administration, we have some hope.”

But he cautioned that “we still have a lot of hearts that need to be changed. I hope that’s what we focus on.”

Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life of America, told RNS that partisan flavor of the rally was unproductive. “We need to bring people into the pro-life fold,” Day said. “It pushes people the other direction.”

Day praised Trump for his pardons of anti-abortion activists and urged the administration to bolster the social safety net and to make lowering the cost of giving birth “a major priority,” explaining she was worried that some of those programs would be cut. Day also said the organization would be pushing for paid leave.

Many participants and speakers expressed hope that abortion rights advocates’ minds would change if they were given the right information.

“These people aren’t inherently evil, they’re just being fed lies. And the more they hear these lies, the more they believe them,” said Bethany Hamilton, a surfer who lost her arm to a shark attack and who was a keynote speaker at the march.

Hamilton encouraged attendees to find ways to support pregnant women.

Heather Lawless, who works with Reliance Ministries to provide a range of services to pregnant women in northern Idaho, told RNS she lives that out.

“It’s the church’s job, not the government’s job, to take care of these women,” she said.