About 80% of the 10 million illegal immigrants who could be at risk of deportation from the United States by the Trump administration are Christians, a new report published by a coalition of Christian advocacy groups estimates.
Titled “One Part of the Body: The Potential Impact of Deportations on American Christian Families,” last Monday’s report finds that four out of five “immigrants at risk of deportation” are Christians as President Donald Trump has repeated a pledge to carry out “the largest deportation in U.S. history.”
Additionally, around one in 12 Christians in the U.S. are “vulnerable to deportation or live with a family member who could be deported.”
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“As of the end of 2024, there were more than 10 million Christian immigrants in the United States who are vulnerable to deportation,” stated the publication released by the National Association of Evangelicals, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Department of Refugee and Migration Services, the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and World Relief — an Evangelical organization that receives grants from the U.S. State Department to resettle refugees in the U.S.
“[N]early 7 million U.S.-citizen Christians live within the same household of those at risk for deportation.”
The 20-page report analyzes immigrants who were vulnerable to deportation as of December 2024 without any change in immigration law.
The tally includes immigrants in the U.S. unlawfully and “categories of noncitizens who are lawfully present” who could be at risk of deportation because their legal protections could be or have already been rescinded by the Trump administration. This includes immigrants with temporary protected statuses due to conditions in their home countries, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients, and asylum seekers remaining in the U.S. while their claims are adjudicated.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced in March that the federal government would revoke humanitarian parole for 532,000 individuals from four countries: Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
The report highlights specific examples of Christians who may face deportation and relies on statistics from the “World Christian Database estimates, based on demographic data from FWD.us derived from the 2023 American Community Survey, and other global census, religious communities, and survey data” including the Pew Research Center report “The Religious Composition of the World’s Migrants.”
Catholics constitute a majority (61%) of immigrants vulnerable to deportation, while 13% are Evangelicals and 7% belong to other Christian groups. The remaining 19% consist of immigrants belonging to “other religious groups” or those with “no religious affiliation” (12%).
Additionally, Catholics comprise 73% of DACA recipients. Nine percent of DACA beneficiaries are Evangelicals, while 8% have no religious affiliation, 6% belong to other Christian groups and 4% belong to other religious groups.
The most common religious affiliation among Temporary Protected Status holders is Catholicism (54%), followed by no religious affiliation (22%), Evangelicals (15%), other Christian groups (6%) and other religious groups (3%). Similarly, the largest group of asylum seekers is Catholics (58%), followed by those with no religious affiliation (15%), Evangelicals (14%), other religious groups (8%) and other Christian groups (5%).
When looking at the percentage of Christian denominations who could “be impacted by deportations of all those at risk,” the report estimates that 8% of all Christians could be impacted, along with 18% of Catholics, 6% of Evangelicals and 3% of Christians belonging to “other” groups.
The report includes a letter signed by NAE President Walter Kim, World Relief CEO Myal Greene, Bishop Mark Seitz of the Roman Catholic Diocese of El Paso and Todd Johnson, co-director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
“In the United States, immigrants from various countries form integral parts of the body of Christ,” the letter stated. “A significant share of the immigrants who are a part of our body are vulnerable to deportation, whether because they have no legal status or their legal protections could be withdrawn.”
The leaders urge American Christians “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.”
“Some immigrants were followers of Jesus long before they came to the United States,” Kim said in his statement. “Many others have found new life in Christ thanks to the witness of evangelical churches. They are beloved and vital members and leaders of our churches. Mass deportation would inflict deep wounds by tearing apart spiritual as well as biological families.”
“We ask President Trump and Members of Congress to show mercy and provide a way for our hard-working and peace-loving brothers and sisters to earn legal immigration status so they can continue to bless our communities.”
Seitz, who also leads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, declared, “Catholic teaching compels us to accompany those who are suffering.”
“This report should motivate every Catholic to demonstrate solidarity with our immigrant brothers and sisters through prayer, public witness and advocacy,” he said.
“The Church calls on policymakers to pursue immigration reform that is both just and compassionate, recognizing the inherent worth of every human being and protecting the sanctity of families as the foundation of society.”
Greene urged Congress to “appropriate enough money to ensure secure borders and to deport immigrants who have been convicted of violent crimes” while refraining from giving “a blank check to this or any administration to carry out mass detention and deportations that would separate families on a massive scale, would decimate the American church and would send vulnerable people who have not broken any law into horrifying humanitarian crises.”
“If they are going to do so, they shouldn’t do so in the name of Christianity, because those are not consistent with the values of Jesus,” Greene asserted.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
