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Markkula Center for Applied Ethics

Mass Deportation: The First Big Test for Religions in the Time of Trump 2.0

Man standing in front of a body of water with people in the background

Man standing in front of a body of water with people in the background

David DeCosse

The intention of the incoming Trump Administration to carry out the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants threatens countless residents, citizens, and communities throughout the United States.

The prospect of such upheaval also poses the first big political test for religions in the U.S. in the time of Trump 2.0.

So far in these tense political times, the big story about religion is the alliance between conservative Christians (mostly evangelical but some Catholic) and Trump in service to a Christian nationalist agenda.

For nationalists in the U.S., Pope Francis’ call last August “to welcome immigrants with our arms open” suggested a callous globalism in which religious concerns run roughshod over national priorities.

For progressive skeptics, the possible involvement of religion in politics only holds the promise of more sectarian division or, as a recent letter writer to the New York Times said: “At the core of each of these religions is the destructive conviction that ‘our’ beliefs are ‘true,’ and all others are false. The resulting ingrained tribalism is the bane of humanity.”

But despite such globalist or sectarian criticisms, there are many other paths for religions to take in their involvement with politics. And now is the time to resurrect and renew those rich and powerful social traditions, whether a religion speaks out on its own behalf or even better if religions speak out together in the face of a crisis that indiscriminately affects millions of persons in this country.

The interfaith path has powerful conceptual and communal roots. For instance, religions offer visions of persons whose ultimate value is not limited by a national boundary. Religions also for centuries have taught the Golden Rule which pushes back against our now-cancerous tendency to demonize migrants, undocumented and otherwise. Finally, religions form real, concrete communities of persons: It’s not as easy to stereotype whole groups of people as criminals or disease carriers when you sit among them in a church or mosque.

A caveat is in order. It’s not inconsistent for religious groups to oppose mass deportation and to think that the U.S. immigration system is dysfunctional. Surely, concern over such a broken system was a key factor in many votes for Trump. But mass deportation is among the worst possible responses to such a broken system.

In any case, political decisions about who may reside in a country are one thing. The claim arising from many religious traditions that all human beings have inalienable and equal dignity—no matter their immigration status—is another. To say this does not require open borders, as many current nativists disparagingly say.

But it does mean that persons have legal and moral rights. In the face of possible deportation, undocumented immigrants have legal rights to due process. Citizens have rights to retain their citizenship in the face of coercive pressure. Moreover, all migrants have moral rights to have basic needs met; to have children and parents kept together; and not to be subject to indiscriminate coercion.

The age-old principle of the Golden Rule is also common to many religious traditions: To treat others as you would have them treat you. Applying this principle to mass deportation, we can ask: How would you feel if you were separated from your children and sent over the border? Or how would you feel if you lived peacefully in a community for years; did essential work that no one else wanted to do; paid taxes; and then was rounded up and sent to a detention camp?

Finally, the experience of real religious communities fosters the empathy that makes the Golden Rule work. By praying in a church or mosque alongside an undocumented immigrant, we can develop a sense of a shared life and of imagining more clearly how others would like to be treated.

Our experience in such communities also disposes us to feel more deeply what could be the destructive, even shocking effects of mass deportation. A short list of such likely effects includes children left behind in congregations as parents are deported; vast economic sectors like agriculture and construction left without huge portions of their work forces; rising inflation as increased costs and supply chain snafus bedevil such economic sectors; and the militarization of American civic life in the event of the threatened military participation in the round up and detention of migrants.

We live at a time when great wealth and power depend on demonizing others. Religions can throw in their lot with such tendencies, which befoul every reasonable attempt to deal with a problem like a broken immigration system. Or religions can turn anew to too-long muffled social traditions that see in the stranger a messenger from God. It’s time for such a renewal.

Jan 22, 2025
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