Clergy Deeply Divided On Immigration Crackdown

ICE raids sweeping through cities big and small. Families detained at bare-bones detention centers. Entire groups deported to countries they’ve never even set foot in. And faith leaders struggling with how to confront the chaos in their communities.

Across America, churches are being pulled – some would say called – into the very heart of the nation’s immigration crisis. No matter where they fall on the political spectrum, pastors face a difficult question cutting at the heart of their faith: what does it mean to minister in a moment like this? How should the Church respond to what many view as one of the defining moral battles of our time?

For some faith leaders, this is a moment not just of compassion, but of conscience, of holy disobedience.

These critics of immigration policy see parallels between the plight of Jesus and America’s migrant community. Across the country, they are driving, bussing, and even flying their flock to protest what they say is the inhumane treatment of immigrants.

But supporters of the immigration crackdown see things differently, framing migrants not as neighbors to be loved, but as trespassers to be repelled. Armed with their faith, they believe they are instruments of divine order, an avenging force for Jesus. And Jesus, they say, would meet them with righteous fury.

When it comes to immigration… What would Jesus do?

Faith Leaders Plead Mercy

At raids and detention centers, protesters bearing signs reading “Love thy neighbor” and “Who would Jesus deport?” are not an uncommon sight. 

At Alligator Alcatraz, a migrant detention center in Florida so-named because it is surrounded by inhospitable, alligator-infested swampland, local church leaders turned weekly candlelight vigils into an act of public witness. Faith leaders across the Sunshine State brought their flock, and what began as a handful of worshipers soon swelled into a movement hundreds strong.

Last month in Chicago, Rev. David Black hoped to bring some ICE agents to “repentance” for their crimes against immigrants. “I basically offered an altar call,” Black explains. “I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

His pleas were met with pepper balls from ICE, one of which struck Black in the head.

For these and many other church leaders meeting the moment with open arms, this is a moral imperative.

“We’re a faith of immigrants – Jesus was an immigrant,” says Rev. Hannah Kardon who heads United Church of Rogers Park. “But to me, this is basic created-being stuff. When you see what is happening here, your whole body and heart resists it because it’s fundamentally wrong.”

Is ICE "God's Appointed Avenger"?

But not all religious leaders agree. To Joel Webbon, senior pastor of Covenant Bible Church in Georgetown, Texas, migrants are an invading force – and were He alive today, Jesus would be out there with ICE rounding them up.

In a recent video, Webbon encouraged his followers to join ICE and “be God's appointed avenger who seeks to carry out God's vengeance on the evildoer."

To Webbon, these immigrants aren’t just breaking man’s laws – they’re breaking God’s. "It is a breach,” he argues, “a rebellion against the Fifth Commandment to honor your father and mother."

"You can join ICE today and make Jesus smile as you, with a gun, pack foreigners into the back of a van to be kicked out of the country. That is a godly, glorious endeavor,” he proclaimed. 

A Holy Divide

Same faith. Different philosophies. One deeply divided flock.

As America’s immigration crisis deepens, churches are becoming battlegrounds, not just of policy, but of theology. Some are transforming their sanctuaries into shelters. Others are turning pulpits into podiums for border enforcement.

And in that tension lies a larger question about the soul of the Church itself.

Are Christians called to protect borders, or to welcome strangers? To enforce the law, or to embody grace?

When it comes to immigration… What would Jesus do?