Faith leaders who minister to immigrant communities in the United States said many targeted groups are bracing for a tougher year as President Donald Trump pursues tougher immigration policies and rhetoric, including language that leaders in several faith traditions said risks dehumanizing people.
The leaders’ concerns include Haitians facing legal uncertainty in Springfield, Ohio; Afghans who worked with the U.S. and fled after the Taliban takeover; and Somali Americans in Minnesota after remarks that community members said increased fear. In the AP report, the Trump administration’s approach is described as blaming immigrants for problems from crime to housing shortages and, in a social media post, demanding “REVERSE MIGRATION.”
In Springfield, the AP report said Haitian residents fear their refuge in the U.S. may end. The report said Haitians had arrived in the city in recent years under the Temporary Protected Status program, and that the program expires in early February. It also described how Trump’s earlier false accusations in Springfield about Haitians eating cats and dogs worsened already heightened anti-immigrant sentiment.
The Rev. Carl Ruby, pastor of Central Christian Church, said the change could be severe. Ruby told the AP, “It’s going to be an economic and humanitarian disaster.” He and Viles Dorsainvil, described in the AP report as a Springfield Haitian community leader, traveled recently to Washington to seek help from members of Congress. Ruby said, “Every single legislator we’ve talked to has said nothing is going to happen legislatively. Trump’s rhetoric keeps getting harsher,” and added, “It just doesn’t feel like anything is going our way.”
Ruby said faith communities in Springfield have organized to support immigrants despite the fear. He told the AP, “It’s increasing our resolve to oppose this,” and said, “There are more and more churches in Springfield saying we will provide sanctuary.” He added, “We will do whatever it takes to protect our members.”
The AP report also said Trump’s rhetoric drew public criticism from religious leaders. The Catholic bishops conference’s subcommittee on racial justice urged public officials to refrain from dehumanizing language, and the AP reported that Daniel Garcia, bishop of Austin, Texas, said, “Each child of God has value and dignity.” Garcia, according to the report, also said, “Language that denigrates a person or community based on his or her ethnicity or country of origin is incompatible with this truth.”
For Afghan refugees, the AP report said Trump suspended the U.S. refugee program on the first day of his second term, halting the program and its federal funding and affecting hundreds of faith-based organizations assisting refugees. Among those organizations, the report said Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area lost 68% of its budget this year and laid off two-thirds of its staff, reducing employment from nearly 300 to 100. The AP report said many of its employees and nearly two-thirds of its clients are Afghans, including people who had worked with the U.S. in Afghanistan before fleeing after the Taliban’s takeover in 2021.
Kristyn Peck, CEO of LSSNCA, told the AP, “It shook up our team. It was awful.” The report said she described increased fear among Afghans on her staff and a false public narrative that Afghan immigrants are a threat. Peck, according to the AP, said, “A whole group of people have now been targeted and blamed for this senseless act of violence,” while also arguing for continued work: “We continue to do the good work,” and “Even in challenging moments, we just continue to see people putting their faith into action.”
The AP report said volunteers have stepped up to cover services that employees no longer have funding to provide, including a program that helps Afghan women with English-language and job-skills training. It also said World Relief, a Christian humanitarian organization overseen by the National Association of Evangelicals, joined left-of-center religious groups decrying the crackdown on Afghan refugees. Myal Greene, CEO of World Relief, said in comments reported by the AP, “When President Trump announces his intention to ‘permanently halt’ all migration from ‘Third World countries,’ he’s insulting the majority of the global Church,” and added, “When his administration halts processing for all Afghans on account of the evil actions of one person, he risks abandoning tens of thousands of others who risked their lives alongside the U.S. military.”
Somali Americans in Minnesota were also described as facing heightened fear. The AP report said Trump referred to them as “garbage,” and that community members in the Twin Cities area worry about their future. In mid-December, the report said imams and other leaders in Minnesota’s Somali community established a task force to address fallout from major fraud scandals, a surge in immigration enforcement, and Trump’s remarks.
The AP report quoted imam Yusuf Abdulle, who directs the Islamic Association of North America, as saying, “We’re not minimizing the crime, but we’re amplifying the successes.” Abdulle told the AP, “For unfortunate things like fraud or youth violence, every immigrant community has been through tough times,” and said, “For the number of years here, Somali is a very resilient, very successful community.” The AP report said that even though many Somali residents in Minnesota are U.S. citizens or lawfully present, immigration enforcement led some local businesses and mosques to close. It said the task force includes more than two dozen faith and business leaders and community organizers, with addressing fears described as the first challenge and advocacy ahead of the 2026 midterm elections described as another priority.
Community leader Abdullahi Farah told the AP, “Every election year the rhetoric goes up. And so we want to push back against these hateful rhetorics, but also bring our community together.”
Beyond local efforts, the AP report described responses from national religious bodies. In mid-November, it said U.S. Catholic bishops voted overwhelmingly to issue a “special message” decrying developments causing fear and anxiety among immigrants and that it was the first time in 12 years the bishops issued such a collective urgent message. The AP report quoted the message saying, “We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care,” and that, “We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people.” It also reported the bishops’ message said, “We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement,” and, “We urge all people of goodwill to continue and expand such efforts.”
The AP report said the Catholic bishops’ message thanked priests, nuns and lay Catholics accompanying and assisting immigrants. It also said Yehiel Curry, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, issued a similar pastoral message last month thanking ELCA congregations for supporting immigrants amid “aggressive and indiscriminate immigration enforcement.” The AP reported that Curry wrote, “The racial profiling and harm to our immigrant neighbors show no signs of diminishing, so we will heed God’s call to show up alongside these neighbors.”
HIAS, an international Jewish nonprofit serving refugees and asylum-seekers, also condemned recent moves described in the AP report as tied to Trump administration actions. The organization said, “As a Jewish organization, we also know all too well what it means for an entire community to be targeted because of the actions of one person,” and added, “We will always stand in solidarity with people seeking the opportunity to rebuild their lives in safety, including those being targeted now by harmful policies and hateful rhetoric in the Afghan American and Somali American communities.”