Visa backlog to end ‘joyful adventure’ for Brazilian native
For Pastor Albert Oliveira, immigration isn’t just about whether it’s legal or illegal; it’s a matter of conscience.
That’s why the Brazilian native says he and his family are ready to leave behind First Baptist Church Gordon, located about 70 miles west of Fort Worth, to do the right thing as his R-1 visa, a temporary permit for religious workers, nears expiration.
“If the law, as it currently stands, does not offer justice to those that have done what it requires, it’s for the conscience of those in power to do what is right,” Oliveira told The Christian Post on Monday. “My family and I have decided that while God is in control and His will is perfect and will continue to be fulfilled through our lives, we trust that He will use our lives to touch the hearts of those in power to make a difference in this matter.”
It’s a bittersweet ending for Oliveira, who arrived in the U.S. in 2011 on a student visa to study intercultural missions and psychology before earning a master’s degree in missiology from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS).
Before coming to the U.S. on an F-1 student visa, Oliveira was a linguistic interpreter for missionaries in Brazil. It was during his time as an interpreter that one of the families he worked with told him they wanted to help him come to the U.S. for college.
While at SWBTS, Oliveira began working at FBC Gordon as a student minister, a role in which he helped shepherd the church through the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020. Shortly after that, he was named the church’s pastor.
“God has been so generous in letting me [be] part of seeing baptisms happening every month, people coming to Christ. Our church now has ministry partnerships in Honduras, Brazil and New York,” he said. “ … Many people have come to Christ, gotten baptized, and flourished in their relationship with Christ because of the ministry that God has established through this church.”
Oliveira said even with the challenges of growing a church in a town of 500 people, where at one point FBC Gordon considered closing its doors due to low attendance, God is still at work in his ministry. “Now our church is having to study the possibility of expanding the sanctuary due to growth,” he added. “The ministry here has definitely been a joyful adventure.”
Next month, that adventure will come to an end, at least for now, when Oliveira and his family will self-deport on Nov. 9 “for the simple reason that we arrived here within the law, we stayed here within the law, and we will leave within the law.”
In September, the Trump administration reported at least 2 million illegal immigrants were either removed or self-deported since President Donald Trump’s inauguration. According to data from the Department of Homeland Security, approximately 1.6 million illegal immigrants have voluntarily self-deported, while immigration authorities have removed another 400,000 people who were in the country illegally.
While his American-born son holds U.S. citizenship, Oliveira’s R-1 visa, held for five years, and his wife’s R-2 visa are set to expire in November. Oliveira has applied for an EB-4 visa, a pathway to a green card, but a surge in applications has overwhelmed the system.
Facing slim chances of approval before his visa expires, Oliveira has chosen to leave to avoid undocumented status.
He expects the family to spend the first six months in Brazil and the remaining time in Germany, while Oliveira pastors FBC Gordon remotely “preaching via livestream, joining meetings through video calls, and otherwise “being part of this church’s life as much as possible until we can return, God willing.”
Despite its dramatic outcome, Oliveira’s story is far from exceptional.
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, according to a report published by a coalition of Christian advocacy groups earlier this year.
According to World Relief’s “One Part of the Body: The Potential Impact of Deportations on American Christian Families” report in April, four out of five “immigrants at risk of deportation” are Christians, as the president has repeated a pledge to carry out “the largest deportation in U.S. history.”
