Diverse ethnic SBC fellowships issue joint statement on immigration

 By Diana Chandler - Posted at Baptist Press:

Published April 2, 2025

DALLAS (BP) – Leaders of 13 Southern Baptist ethnic groups have approved a joint statement on immigration seeking religious liberty protections, compassion without demonization and enforcement options including fines or other penalties in lieu of deportation.

Signers of the statement said they share the “federal government’s desire to protect citizens, promote legal immigration and refugee policies, and robustly safeguard the country’s borders.” But “enforcement must be accompanied with compassion that doesn’t demonize those fleeing oppression, violence, and persecution.” The statement was shared with Baptist Press by Bruno Molina, executive director of the National Hispanic Baptist Network and a signatory.

Haitian, Hispanic, African American, Chinese, Filipino, Nigerian, Liberian, Ghanaian, Korean, Burmese, Thai and Vietnamese leaders signed the statement, Molina told Baptist Press.

Victor Chayasirisobhon, another signatory and director of the Southern Baptist Convention Asian Collective representing all Asian fellowships in the SBC, said all groups in the collective approved the statement individually and collectively.

Sixteen leaders representing roughly 10,900 churches signed the statement on behalf of their groups amid immigration changes that leaders have said will heavily impact Southern Baptist Haitian and Hispanic congregations, including orders that end humanitarian parole for 532,000 Haitians, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Cubans April 24, and end Temporary Protected Status for an estimated 1.1 million others in August. A federal judge on March 31 blocked an order that would have forced 350,000 Venezuelans to leave April 7.

“Threats of mass deportation by the Trump administration and its lack of assurance to churches that ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents will not enter churches to carry out immigration enforcement duties,” ethnic leaders wrote, “has caused fear to rise among both the guilty and the innocent.”

Attendance has dropped significantly, leaders said, threatening religious liberty and immigrants’ access to spiritual care in their local churches.

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See also:

• Baptist leaders urge Trump to show compassion for immigrants (Christian Post)