Catholic and Evangelical Leaders Speak With One Voice on Immigration for the First Time

For the first time in American history, senior leaders of the Catholic Church and the evangelical world have put their names to a joint statement on immigration. It was released Tuesday by Bishop Brendan Cahill, who chairs the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration, and the Rev. Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, the USCCB announced.

It is titled "A Call for Christian Compassion and Wisdom in the Immigration Debate." Whatever you think of the policy, it deserves to be read in full rather than through headlines, because it says more than either side will want to admit.

Who wrote it, and why now

Cahill and Kim co-chair the Evangelical-Catholic Dialogue on Immigration, launched in March by the two organizations. It includes five evangelical and five Catholic members besides the co-chairs, according to the USCCB. Among the Catholic members are the bishops of Des Moines, Charleston and San Diego, the group's page lists.

The USCCB tied the timing to "a significant increase in the number of reported detentions and deportations," especially after several groups of immigrants had their legal protections revoked. "What is unique about this statement is not the content," the co-chairs said, "but the clear unity that exists between us in this moment."

What it says

The statement rests on three biblical principles. First, every person bears God's image. "This dignity comes from God, not government, and no earthly power may erase it," the statement reads. Second, the family is "ordained by God as the foundational human institution," citing Genesis 2:24 and Christ's words in Matthew 19:6, "man must not separate, then, what God has joined together." Third, government is responsible for "the establishment and enforcement of reasonable immigration policies," citing Romans 13.

That third point is not a throwaway. The leaders "affirm the responsibility of government to maintain secure and well-managed borders." They write: "We do not disparage law enforcement. To the contrary, we are grateful for their service." They add that officers "also bear God's image, and many feel the weight of moral injury when duty and conscience collide."

But they also argue that enforcement aimed at the wrong people misreads Scripture. "To focus enforcement on the peaceful and productive majority, rather than on those who seek to do harm, is not an expression of Romans 13 but a departure from it," they write. "To tear a mother from her children or leave a citizen spouse to raise a family alone is to create the very widows and orphans Scripture commands us to defend."

"Roughly one in 12 believers in this country either faces the loss of legal status or shares a home with someone who does. Their fear is our fear; their tears are ours to wipe."

That figure comes from a report the two groups published, which estimates that 8 percent of American Christians are either at risk of deportation or live with someone who is, including one in 18 evangelicals and nearly one in five Catholics. The report is clear that the number assumes the government tried to deport everyone vulnerable under current law. It also finds that 80 percent of those at risk are Christians.

What they are asking for

The statement calls on Congress, which it says alone can fix "the statutory shortcomings of our legal immigration system," to pass reform that gives longtime residents "meaningful opportunities" to regularize their status. It also asks for "targeted, proportionate, and humane" enforcement that prioritizes "those who threaten public safety," strict limits on detaining non-violent immigrants, especially children and families, and access to chaplains and legal counsel for everyone in detention.

Reading it honestly

Some conservatives will dismiss this as church leaders doing politics. That is too easy. The statement grounds itself in Scripture, affirms borders and law enforcement, defends marriage and the family as God's design, and closes with a prayer for "our law enforcement officers, our policymakers, our judges." Those are not the talking points of the left.

It is also fair to say what the statement leaves underdeveloped. It says little about what a nation owes its own working families when illegal immigration strains wages, schools and hospitals, beyond a single line that the same biblical mandates "apply with equal force to our own citizens." It does not wrestle with how to prevent the next wave of illegal crossings if longtime residents are given legal status. Those are real questions, and Christians can disagree on the answers in good faith.

But the core claim is hard to argue with. The Bible does command care for the stranger. It does treat the family as sacred. It does tell government to punish evildoers, not the peaceful. A believer can support deporting violent criminals and securing the border while also refusing to treat a fellow church member, raising children and paying taxes for 20 years, as an enemy.

This week, Christians across traditions were praying together for Pope Leo after his cancer surgery. This statement asks for that same kind of unity on a harder subject. The leaders end by saying they write "not in anger or partisanship but in hope." That is the right spirit, whatever the policy outcome.

Hero photo: William Warby via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0, cropped and resized.