Christians account for approximately 80% of all of those at risk of deportation. The Christians most at risk of deportation are Catholics, 61% of the total.
10 million Christians in U.S. at risk of mass deportation, says Catholic-Evangelical report
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A joint report between organizations affiliated with different Christian churches found that a significant share of people impacted by the Trump administration's pursuit of what it has called "the largest deportation in U.S. history," are Christian.
The report, a joint project of the National Association of Evangelicals, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Migration and Refugee Services, the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and World Relief, found many of those vulnerable to deportation themselves -- or those who have a family member vulnerable to deportation -- are Christians.
"One cannot help but ponder what our country and our lives would be like, if the same sort of restrictions and enforcement actions being contemplated today were imposed on those coming from places like Ireland, Germany, Poland, Italy and elsewhere by the boat full," Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, told reporters in a press call about the report.
"You know, it's amazing how U.S. history repeats itself, and I don't think many of us would suggest that the way that our immigrant ancestors were treated in many cases would be a model to be followed today," he said.
Catholic social teaching on immigration balances three interrelated principles -- the right of persons to migrate in order to sustain their lives and those of their families, the right of a country to regulate its borders and control immigration, and a nation's duty to regulate its borders with justice and mercy.
While the individual Christian organizations behind the report may support or oppose particular policies according to their beliefs, participants explained, they share a common goal of seeking to understand not only how mass deportations would impact the U.S., but also their faith communities and Christians as a whole.
According to demographic data as of the end of 2024, the report found, more than 10 million Christians living in the U.S. would be vulnerable to deportation under Trump administration policies implemented in 2025.
Christians account for approximately 80% of all of those at risk of deportation. The Christians most at risk of deportation are Catholics, 61% of the total.
At the same time, about 7 million Christians who are U.S. citizens live in the same household as someone at risk of deportation.
Overall, the report found, about one out of every 12 Christians in the U.S. -- including one out of 18 evangelicals and about one out of five Catholics -- are either vulnerable to deportation themselves or could see a family member deported, barring law or policy changes.
Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, pointed to a recent Lifeway Research study showing that while evangelicals have been a consistent voting bloc supporting Trump during his three presidential campaigns, most support deporting individuals who have been convicted of violent crimes, but support programs to help refugees and policies aimed at keeping families together.
"Now, sometimes it's thought that many evangelicals are supportive of this, but in fact, most evangelical Christians do not want to see deportation on this scale, of immigrants who have not been convicted of violent crimes, who are members of our churches whose deportations would result in families being separated," Kim said.
Stephanie Gonzalez, a teacher at a Christian school in Southern California whose parents, 55-year-old Gladys and 59-year-old Nelson Gonzalez, who have no criminal record, were recently deported to Colombia after more than 35 years in the U.S. Gonzalez said when they arrived in the U.S., they sought to follow the law, but "my parents became victims of immigration fraud and dealt with several fraudulent lawyers who took advantage of them."
"This was just the beginning of the nightmare that my parents faced when it came to attorneys and a flawed immigration system," Gonzalez said.
Bishop Seitz and Gonzalez both raised the point that separating families contradicts Christians' interest in protecting strong family units.
"The separation of families is heartbreaking, and I believe the separation breaks the Lord's heart," Gonzalez said.
The report, titled "One Part of the Body," is a reference to the biblical teaching that Christians form one body, composed of distinct but interdependent parts, Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief, one of the largest evangelical ministries serving refugees and other immigrants, said on the call.
"When one part of the body suffers, we are all to suffer together, just as a hand cannot go about its business unaffected if a foot is in debilitating, debilitating pain," he said. "With that biblical principle in mind, we set out to understand and quantify with this report how the Trump administration's proposals for the largest deportation in U.S. history could impact the church in the United States. Immigrants from various countries form integral parts of the body of Christ in the U.S." — Gina Christian, OSV News
Pictured at top: Agents with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detain a man after conducting a raid at the Cedar Run apartment complex in Denver Feb. 5, 2025. (OSV News/Kevin Mohatt, Reuters)
Christians account for approximately 80% of all of those at risk of deportation. The Christians most at risk of deportation are Catholics, 61% of the total.
10 million Christians in U.S. at risk of mass deportation, says Catholic-Evangelical report
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A joint report between organizations affiliated with different Christian churches found that a significant share of people impacted by the Trump administration's pursuit of what it has called "the largest deportation in U.S. history," are Christian.
The report, a joint project of the National Association of Evangelicals, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Migration and Refugee Services, the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and World Relief, found many of those vulnerable to deportation themselves -- or those who have a family member vulnerable to deportation -- are Christians.
"One cannot help but ponder what our country and our lives would be like, if the same sort of restrictions and enforcement actions being contemplated today were imposed on those coming from places like Ireland, Germany, Poland, Italy and elsewhere by the boat full," Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, told reporters in a press call about the report.
"You know, it's amazing how U.S. history repeats itself, and I don't think many of us would suggest that the way that our immigrant ancestors were treated in many cases would be a model to be followed today," he said.
Catholic social teaching on immigration balances three interrelated principles -- the right of persons to migrate in order to sustain their lives and those of their families, the right of a country to regulate its borders and control immigration, and a nation's duty to regulate its borders with justice and mercy.
While the individual Christian organizations behind the report may support or oppose particular policies according to their beliefs, participants explained, they share a common goal of seeking to understand not only how mass deportations would impact the U.S., but also their faith communities and Christians as a whole.
According to demographic data as of the end of 2024, the report found, more than 10 million Christians living in the U.S. would be vulnerable to deportation under Trump administration policies implemented in 2025.
Christians account for approximately 80% of all of those at risk of deportation. The Christians most at risk of deportation are Catholics, 61% of the total.
At the same time, about 7 million Christians who are U.S. citizens live in the same household as someone at risk of deportation.
Overall, the report found, about one out of every 12 Christians in the U.S. -- including one out of 18 evangelicals and about one out of five Catholics -- are either vulnerable to deportation themselves or could see a family member deported, barring law or policy changes.
Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, pointed to a recent Lifeway Research study showing that while evangelicals have been a consistent voting bloc supporting Trump during his three presidential campaigns, most support deporting individuals who have been convicted of violent crimes, but support programs to help refugees and policies aimed at keeping families together.
"Now, sometimes it's thought that many evangelicals are supportive of this, but in fact, most evangelical Christians do not want to see deportation on this scale, of immigrants who have not been convicted of violent crimes, who are members of our churches whose deportations would result in families being separated," Kim said.
Stephanie Gonzalez, a teacher at a Christian school in Southern California whose parents, 55-year-old Gladys and 59-year-old Nelson Gonzalez, who have no criminal record, were recently deported to Colombia after more than 35 years in the U.S. Gonzalez said when they arrived in the U.S., they sought to follow the law, but "my parents became victims of immigration fraud and dealt with several fraudulent lawyers who took advantage of them."
"This was just the beginning of the nightmare that my parents faced when it came to attorneys and a flawed immigration system," Gonzalez said.
Bishop Seitz and Gonzalez both raised the point that separating families contradicts Christians' interest in protecting strong family units.
"The separation of families is heartbreaking, and I believe the separation breaks the Lord's heart," Gonzalez said.
The report, titled "One Part of the Body," is a reference to the biblical teaching that Christians form one body, composed of distinct but interdependent parts, Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief, one of the largest evangelical ministries serving refugees and other immigrants, said on the call.
"When one part of the body suffers, we are all to suffer together, just as a hand cannot go about its business unaffected if a foot is in debilitating, debilitating pain," he said. "With that biblical principle in mind, we set out to understand and quantify with this report how the Trump administration's proposals for the largest deportation in U.S. history could impact the church in the United States. Immigrants from various countries form integral parts of the body of Christ in the U.S." — Gina Christian, OSV News
Pictured at top: Agents with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detain a man after conducting a raid at the Cedar Run apartment complex in Denver Feb. 5, 2025. (OSV News/Kevin Mohatt, Reuters)
Hundreds join El Paso bishop's protest against migrant mass deportation, asylum bans
EL PASO, Texas — Mass deportations and asylum bans – part of the Trump administration's rapid changes to U.S. immigration policy – destroy communities and human dignity, while constituting a "war on the poor," said Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas.
The bishop – who chairs the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration – shared his thoughts during a March 24 prayer vigil at Sacred Heart Church in El Paso, which capped a rally and march that began in the city's downtown San Jacinto Plaza.
"Aquí Estamos: March and Vigil to Stand with Migrants" drew hundreds of participants, including immigration advocates, Catholic and interfaith clergy, religious and lay faithful.
The gathering, spoken in English and Spanish throughout, was attended by Catholic prelates from the U.S., Canada and Mexico, including Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio; Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico; Bishop Peter Baldacchino of Las Cruces, New Mexico; Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky; and Bishop Noël Simard of Valleyfield, Quebec.
Also on hand was Cardinal Fabio Baggio of Bassano del Grappa, Italy, the undersecretary of the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
Speaking in Spanish, Cardinal Baggio invited attendees at the vigil to pray for "all the victims of the different migratory routes" in the world, from Africa and Asia to Europe and the U.S.
"Thousands and thousands of brothers and sisters who, simply looking for a better future or refuge, lost their lives," he said in lament.
According to the United Nations' International Organization for Migration, 2024 was the deadliest year on record for migrants, with at least 8,938 perishing on migration routes.
The El Paso rally, march and vigil – organized by Bishop Seitz in partnership with Hope Border Institute, an El Paso-based immigrant advocacy nonprofit – took place on the feast of St. Oscar Romero, the martyred archbishop of San Salvador known for his fierce defense of human rights and the marginalized in El Salvador.
The rally's timing was "no accident," especially as such rights have become increasingly endangered amid an "attack on immigrants today," Bishop Seitz said in his address at the vigil.
The denial of asylum and the threat of mass deportations represent "a fundamental attack on the human community" and on "Jesus' vision of a fully reconciled humanity," he said. "Mass deportations are another tool to keep people afraid, to keep a people divided, to extinguish the charity and love that keep a people alive."
Catholic social teaching on immigration holds that people have the right to migrate to sustain their lives, while nations have the right to regulate their borders and control immigration, although they must do so with both justice and mercy.
But speakers at the rally pointed to recent U.S. immigration policy changes as exceeding those moral parameters, and instead eroding human rights and fostering division.
Ruben Garcia, founder and executive director of Annunciation House – an El Paso shelter that has hosted over 500,000 people fleeing more than 40 countries for nearly five decades – pointed to recent letters sent by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to organizations receiving shelter grant money. The notices require "a detailed and descriptive list of specific services," and compel executive officers from the groups to sign sworn statements they have no knowledge or suspicions of staff violating smuggling laws.
Children are not spared in the administration's crackdown on immigration, said attorney Melissa M. Lopez, executive director of the Diocese of El Paso's Estrella del Paso (formerly Migrant and Refugee Services), which provides free immigration legal services.
Lopez advised the crowd her office had received notice March 21 the federal government had terminated its contract with the Acacia Center for Justice, which provides legal services to unaccompanied migrant minors through a national network of providers, including Lopez's team.
"The federal government has decided that children should go to court by themselves, that children should be forced to understand asylum law and apply for asylum on their own, and that they don't deserve ... having somebody stand alongside them," she said. Lopez added that she lost 18 staff at her agency – which served "almost 30,000 children last year" – due to the contract termination.
Dylan Corbett, executive director of Hope Border Institute, described the current immigration climate as "difficult" and a "dark moment." He told rally attendees that "everything that is beautiful about this community" on the border "is under attack right now."
But Bishop Seitz also emphasized, "We are here tonight to celebrate our community."
Participants embraced that spirit through praise and worship music, as well as through religious dance troupes honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Jude and St. Patrick, with choreography, drumming and costumes reflecting the area's Catholic Indigenous and Mexican-Spanish heritage.
"El Paso is a proud and beautiful border community" that "stands as a testament to how welcoming others fosters a safe, prosperous and vibrant environment for all," said El Paso Auxiliary Bishop Anthony C. Celino.
At the rally, Bishop Celino invited those present to affirm the six principles of the Compromiso El Paso 2025 ("El Paso Commitment 2025"). Attendees could digitally sign the Compromiso El Paso through a Google Doc link accessed by cards with a QR code and Romero's image, provided by Hope Border Institute.
The principles include human dignity; family; community safety built on collaboration and trust between residents and law enforcement; prosperity; fairness through "humane ... responsible immigration policies"; and "celebration of our heritage," said Bishop Celino.
Following the rally, participants – some holding signs stating "Jesus was an immigrant" and "Migration is a human right" – walked the half mile from the plaza to the vigil at Sacred Heart Church, led by Bishop Seitz and his fellow prelates and preceded by the drummers and dancers.
"Community is an exchange of gifts, where we gift our lives to one another for the benefit of one another," Bishop Seitz said at the vigil. "We grow together and we bear one another's burdens."
Christ offered himself in sacrifice – one to which Romero, through his own martyrdom, united himself – for "that body" that is divinely created humanity, said Bishop Seitz.
"We belong to one another, brothers and sisters," he said. "We belong to each other."
That interrelatedness extends well beyond the borders of the U.S., said Bishop Seitz.
"Migration is connected with the fate of our country," he said. "Our relationship to this issue as El Paso and as the United States reveals what we truly value, what we truly honor. Hopefully, we put our faith not in money and power and rivalry and dominance and empire. This would be idolatry of the worst sort."
At the border, "we see that (in) this war on the poor, everything is disposable – land, water, environment, our health, women ... marriages, the unborn, the poor, human rights," said Bishop Seitz.
Jesus "points us in a different direction," Bishop Seitz said. "True, authentic community is built on self-sacrifice, love, and bearing one another's burdens. ... This is what the church, the beloved community, must be in the world. And we must be a sign to them."
Bishop Seitz assured all those "who live in fear of deportation and family separation" of "our love and commitment," stressing that "the church stands with you in this hour of darkness.
"And to those in a position of responsibility for our country who steward the common good, I make this urgent plea," he said before raising his voice. "Stop the asylum ban. Stop the deportations." — Gina Christian, OSV News
Pictured at top: Bishop Peter Baldacchino of Las Cruces, N.M.; Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio; Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas; and Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, N.M., lead a march in El Paso March 24, 2025, against mass deportations by the U.S. government. (OSV News/Bob Roller)
Seitz: U.S. policy shift making migrants fearful, creating a less welcoming nation
EL PASO, Texas — Ahead of a March 24 immigrant solidarity rally he organized in El Paso, OSV News interviewed Bishop Mark J. Seitz, who heads that diocese, for his thoughts on current U.S. immigration policy and the challenges faced by those he serves in his borderlands community. Bishop Seitz currently chairs the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
OSV News: What are you hearing from the people you serve about immigration and current administration's policies? What are they experiencing?
Bishop Seitz: Well, I'm hearing a lot of concern from so many different places within my diocese.
First of all, of course, you have to think about the immigrants that are here, and there are so many that have found a home in this area, (but) perhaps haven't completed the years-long process of being fully naturalized.
We have others who, for whatever reason, have come here and tried to live without being seen.
But now, all of them, even those who really have citizenship, have come up to me and told me how fearful they are that they might be caught up in this web (of immigration arrests and deportations) without being able to really have recourse.
In the past, there has been a careful process before we ever decided to deport someone to see whether they're eligible for asylum or to see whether they have documentation to stay. But now, there's no assurance.
They're afraid, and understandably so, that they might just find themselves one day caught up in this and then deported without recourse. So, that group is fearful.
I think there are very few that live in this area of the United States, close to the border, that don't know the story. (There are) very few people in El Paso who don't have family on the other side (of the border, in Mexico), and know the reality of the life-threatening situations that many people face that cause them to seek refuge in our country. And they have to do it quickly. So, they understand those stories.
I've heard a lot of concern, even in our remoter, rural parishes, about those among them who they know are suffering right now, and concern that their families might be broken up and so on. So, a lot of fear in our community.
OSV News: Given the recent shifts in U.S. immigration policies, do you see a hardness of heart among the population regarding the issue of immigration?
Bishop Seitz: I've actually said in the past that one role that a bishop has is to be a doctor of souls. We're given those letters, "D.D.," after our name, which is humbling. It means "doctor of divinity."
But as I step into that role, which I trust that the Spirit has led me to, I have to diagnose a problem in our country that is hardness of heart. In a physical sense, when our veins, our arteries, our heart itself is no longer of flesh but calcified, it has problems.
And I'm very concerned. You might even say I'm more concerned about us than them, than the immigrants among us, because we're losing something that is essential for us to be who we are, to have our own particular identity as a country of immigrants that welcomes people who are different than ourselves.
So I'm very concerned for us, not only them.
OSV News: You've been to the Dárien Gap (a deadly 60-mile migration transit route between Colombia and Panama), and you're very familiar with the root causes of immigration. What are your thoughts on addressing those causes?
Bishop Seitz: Yes, I've had the chance to see what lengths people are willing to go to in order to escape the situation in their own country.
We've got to help people understand in our country that they're not simply looking to have a nicer car. People are fleeing for their lives. That's why they'll take chances. They're fleeing for their children's lives. That's why they'll risk everything.
That's why even sometimes if they can't travel themselves, they'll send their children. People say, "How could somebody do that?" Well, only if they don't feel there's another possibility for their life.
So it's difficult for us in the United States, who have grown up in a country that has had incomparable order and tranquility, to begin to put ourselves in the place of others. But that's what we need to do.
And all I ask people, they don't have to take my word necessarily. Talk to an immigrant. Listen to their story. Once you know them, you'll evaluate things differently.
It's not to say … that a person who comes to our country shouldn't be vetted. It's not to say that we should let in everybody that comes to our border. By no means; the church doesn't teach that. But it is to say that our hearts have to be a lot more open than they are right now.
OSV News: The name of the rally and vigil you're about to lead tonight in El Paso is "Aquí Estamos" ("We Are Here"). Catholicism is a religion of presence, from the Real Presence of the Eucharist to faithful's presence to one another in evangelization and works of mercy. Talk about how the title for tonight's event ties in the faith's focus on presence.
Bishop Seitz: It's so important in moments like these, in moments when people are suffering, in moments when people feel abandoned, when people feel alone -- it's so important for us as brothers and sisters in Christ to be there, to step up, to show our love and concern.
Even though we really can't tell them everything will be OK right now, we can tell them, "You're not alone. We will walk with you. We love you. We see your dignity as a child of God, and we will not abandon you even when things get difficult."
Seitz: U.S. policy shift making migrants fearful, creating a less welcoming nation