Churches Feel Financial Strain as Immigration Crackdown Continues
A news report in today’s edition of Religion News Service exposes a grim fact: newly strained finances are just one reality that Latino immigrant churches are adjusting to as the Trump administration accelerates a promised mass deportation campaign and other aggressive changes to immigration policy.
RNS points to the situation at Celebration Church, a Portuguese- and English-speaking Baptist congregation in the Boston area, where the benevolence fund is supposed to help church families meet basic needs, such as food, clothing and heat, throughout the year. However, this year, in April, three months into President Donald Trump’s campaign to deport immigrants, the money had already been almost completely spent.
Celebration’s pastor, Josias Souza, explained that “If a family member has been detained, the church tries to mobilize to help the families in need. Moreover, he noted, many other immigrant congregants are afraid to show up to work. The stark reality, he said, is that “If a person doesn’t work, they don’t get paid.”
The RNS report also highlights the situation at Our Family, a multilingual church in the Orlando, Florida, area. Lead pastor to the church’s Brazilian members, the Rev. Lecio Dornas, reported to RNS that fear of raids at workplaces or of being stopped while commuting has been the biggest impact of the crackdown on his community.
According to Rev. Dornas, the resulting hit on members’ incomes on one hand lowers offerings, and on the other, creates greater need for assistance.
RNS sums up the current dynamic:
As their congregants live in fear of being detained and deported, pastors of churches serving immigrant populations across the country are not only searching for ways to reassure their congregations, but how to care for them and sustain their churches financially.
This is becoming increasingly difficult. For example,
At the oldest standing house of worship in Texas, San Antonio’s Catholic San Fernando Cathedral, the rector, the Rev. Carlos Velázquez, said the tension over potential detention or deportation is thought to have caused lower attendance at Fiesta San Fernando, part of an annual citywide festival, Fiesta San Antonio, that dates back to 1891.
“ We’re attributing (that to) the fact that people don’t want to go out right now,” Velázquez said. “They’re scared.” The people who did come out spent less, which Velázquez attributes to their economic uncertainty.
The 287-year-old cathedral stands about three blocks from the U.S. Justice Department’s San Antonio Immigration Court, where immigrants’ deportation cases are increasingly being dismissed at the behest of government lawyers, allowing them to be detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for expedited removal outside the courtroom. (The archdiocese is working to inform immigrants of their right to request a virtual hearing to remove the risk of an ICE arrest at court.)
Normally one of the year’s biggest fundraisers, Fiesta San Fernando came up short, and Velázquez said he will probably defer maintenance on the 22-year-old building he lives in, where moisture is creating cracks in the roofline. “ It’s pretty major, but it’s something that we’re going to have to put aside,” he said.
Meanwhile, in relatively nearby California,
At St. Thomas the Apostle, one of the largest Catholic parishes in Los Angeles, the pastor, the Rev. Mario Torres, decided to postpone the parish’s early July St. Thomas fiesta to early September because about half of those he spoke to said they were scared to attend.
Torres preaches to nearly 10,000 families at Mass most weekends. “Even though it’s a difficult time, let’s not allow the fear to control us,” he said he tells them during homilies, where he has drawn on Jesus’ words, “peace be with you.”
But he told RNS that the festival is different from Mass. “ Here in the church, I could protect you,” Torres said. “For example, if ICE shows up at the church, I could close the doors, and I don’t think they’ll come in.”
Amid the carnival rides, “outside, I can’t really protect you,” he said, imagining ICE could carry out detentions without him even being aware.
The RNS article goes on to mention other immigrant churches where congregants worship in fear. The churches continue to function because of the unity of the believers and what Rev. Dornas calls the strong sense of solidarity among immigrant communities. He points to the fact that his congregants are raising funds to help pay bills and buy medication for those in need — even buying plane tickets for those who, out of fear, choose to return to their countries of origin.
Rev. Dornas sums up the current situation with these words: “Solidarity requires effort and sacrifice. Either we do it, or no one will.”
Indeed, the RNS report points out that in the midst of the current crisis, there is growing frustration among Latinos with the broader evangelical establishment. For example, Agustín Quiles, president of Mission Talk and board member of the Fraternidad de Concilios y Entidades Evangélicas, based in Florida, stated:
“There’s a sense of abandonment from the white evangelical community. The councils and denominations are growing because of the membership numbers that come from the Latino church, yet they are silent, turning their backs to their Latino Christian sisters and brothers. We need to find a bridge there. There should not be two different gospels.”
Well said, Bro. Quiles!
Vaughn E. James