A new report by several Christian organizations warns that up to 10 million Christians could face deportation under proposed Trump administration policies—raising concerns for families and churches across the U.S.—though the authors say their goal is not to take a political stance but to highlight the potential impact on the American church.
One Part of the Body: The Potential Impact of Deportations on American Christian Families is a multi-agency report produced by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, the National Association of Evangelicals, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services, and World Relief.
The report highlights that the Bible teaches that there is one body of Christ, which is “not made up of one part but of many,” (1 Corinthians 12:13-14) and “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it” (verse 26).
The authors note that immigrants that are “integral parts” of American churches, whether they have permanent legal status or not, are vulnerable to deportation. This puts millions of Christians at risk under former President Donald Trump’s pledge to “carry out the largest deportation in history.”
“Among these categories of individuals who are at risk of deportation — should any administration seek to deport as many individuals as legally within their authority without any change to U.S. law — are many Christians, given that Christianity is, by far, the religion of the large majority of those in these categories,” write the report’s authors.
“We estimate that, as of the end of 2024, there were more than 10 million Christian immigrants present in the United States who are vulnerable to deportation, including those with no legal status, as well as those with a temporary status or protections that could be withdrawn.”
Many of these people live with U.S. citizens in households as lawful permanent residents or with others not at risk of deportation.
“The impact on American Christian households goes well beyond those directly at risk of deportation,” adds the report. “We find that nearly 7 million U.S. citizen Christians live within the same households of those at risk of deportation.
“Most of these U.S. citizens are spouses or minor children of the immigrant at risk of deportation. While the immigrant may be at risk of deportation, a U.S. citizen spouse or child cannot be deported under U.S. law.”
The report clarifies that it does not advocate for a specific political position or argue that all deportations are wrong.
“Rather, our purpose with this report is to invite American Christians — within our congregations and within the halls of governmental power — to recognize that, if even a fraction of those vulnerable to deportation are actually deported, the ramifications are profound — for those individuals, of course, but also for their U.S. citizen family members and, because when one part of the body suffers, every part suffers with it, for all Christians.”
The report also expresses concern for non-Christian immigrants at risk of deportation, emphasizing that all people are made in the image of God and have “inherent dignity” (Genesis 1:27, Genesis 9:6, James 3:9).
“Jesus’ command to love one’s neighbor was clarified by a story of a person who loved someone of a different religious tradition who was in need (Luke 10:25–37),” the report continues. “Our call extends to those outside of the Body of Christ — but it certainly also includes those within, and many American Christians, we suspect, have not realized that among immigrants at risk of deportation, the vast majority — four out of five — are fellow Christians.”
The report outlines the legal and personal circumstances faced by many immigrants, including those who have lived in the U.S. for years under temporary permissions. It presents scenarios in which deportation creates complex dilemmas for mixed-status families.
One such scenario would be that a member of a family is given a deportation order, which would mean the family as a whole would face a dilemma. A U.S. citizen husband would have to choose between leaving with his deported wife, and thus leaving his job and means to support the family. In his wife’s country, the American husband could then face the same threat of religious persecution, which led his wife to originally flee her country, and give up his religious freedom rights and protection afforded by the U.S. Constitution.
Decisions become even more difficult when American citizen children are involved, the report says.
“Some families repatriate as a family, avoiding separation, but others make the difficult decision to have a parent not facing deportation stay behind with U.S. citizen children, or to find a relative or even a foster family to care for their children so that they can benefit from the relative safety, educational opportunities and economic well-being available in the United States but not in their parent’s country of origin,” the report says.
“Some parents would rather their son or daughter stay with loved ones — relatives or members of their church community — in the United States, where they can worship Jesus freely, rather than have them travel to a context where Christians face persecution,” the report adds.
The potential for such family separations, if the Trump administration follows through on mass deportation plans, presents a “sobering public policy concern,” the report states.
An additional concern is that if a church pastor is deported from the U.S., it can lead to the folding of churches due to lack of leadership. Similarly, if a large number of church members are deported, churches may close.
“In these cases, even church members who are citizens or legal permanent residents will be deeply impacted. In other cases, fear of deportation may deter some church members from attending services at all, again affecting the entire congregation.”
Overall, the report found that 8 percent of all Christians in the U.S. are at risk of deportation or live in households with someone who is.
“That’s one out of every 12 Christians in the U.S. — including one out of 18 evangelical Christians and nearly one out of five Catholics — that are vulnerable to deportation or could lose at least one family member if the United States government were to deport all of those vulnerable to deportation without any change in law,” the report adds.
“That’s because the vast majority of individuals at risk of deportation are Christians: 80 percent of all of those at risk of deportation are Christians. Sixty-one percent of those at risk of deportation are Catholic, 13 percent are evangelical and 7 percent are adherents to other Christian traditions.”
The report’s authors say such findings “should be sobering” for all Christians, if the government — or a future administration — seeks to “deport as many individuals as possible under existing law.”
“Our prayer is that the president and his administration as well as the Congress will take these stark realities into consideration as they pursue immigration policies,” the report concludes.
“Just as importantly, we pray that the whole of the American church, including the 11 out of 12 Christian households not at risk of losing a family member to deportation, will recognize that this suffering that is likely to affect many parts of the body of Christ actually impacts them as well.”
