As riots and protests over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids continue in Los Angeles and across several other major U.S. cities, it is necessary to examine how the church is and should be responding. Some pastors and churches have spoken out in support of protests condemning the raids while others support the enforcement of Federal immigration law and condemn violent protesters.
In one protest on Monday, ecumenical and interfaith clergy joined with a group of protesters on the streets of Los Angeles. Many of these clergy were partnered with Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE), a Religious Left organization historically supportive of immigrants, the LGBTQ community, and groups it identifies as marginalized. According to several of the clergy, the goal of the gathering was to discourage violence by both protesters and those charged with controlling the protests.
“We’re here to peacefully ask where the families are,” described the Rev. Omega Burckhardt, a Unitarian Universalist pastor. “¿Donde están los niños? Where are the people who’ve been detained? We’re also here peacefully to support the right to protest, and we’re here to help keep a peaceful presence for folks. We understand people are very angry and very upset, and we’re here to provide a non-anxious presence.”
Civil Rights activist the Rev. Eddie Anderson stated, “Nobody needs to get shot today, nobody needs to get harmed today. We can stand here and do our First Amendment right and nonviolently protest them ripping apart our families and taking away our loved ones. This is Black-brown solidarity and all religious faiths coming together. This is our Los Angeles, and everyone deserves to be free in this city.”
Despite the presence of clergy however, the protest was not entirely peaceful. Clergy stood by watching as protesters kicked and hammered federal Customs and Border Security vehicles with objects, including umbrellas, as they attempted to pass through the crowd.
Catholic Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, the nation’s largest Catholic community, issued a statement calling for “restraint and calm” in the tension- filled streets of LA.
“I am troubled by today’s immigration enforcement raids in Los Angeles, and I am praying for our community,” Gomez stated on June 6. “We all agree that we don’t want undocumented immigrants who are known terrorists or violent criminals in our communities. But there is no need for the government to carry out enforcement actions in a way that provokes fear and anxiety among ordinary, hardworking immigrants and their families.”
Gomez continued by calling on Congress to fix the country’s “broken” immigration system. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ Immigration Task Force also organized an interfaith candlelight prayer vigil at the Los Angeles City Hall to pray for peace and an end to violence.
In an interview with CBN News, Jeremy Johnson, the lead pastor of Fearless Church in downtown LA, touched on different aspects of the unrest, emphasizing that the church needed to be “loving on people” and provide an outlet for emotions such as fear and anger.
“We’re going to be the hands and feet of Jesus, but we also believe in laws [and] we believe in safe borders,” Johnson remarked.
Addressing the current immigration issue, Johnson proclaimed: “Heaven and Hell both have walls… and gates. I think the key is that in America it feels like maybe right now the wall is the big thing being worked on….I remember Trump talking about the big beautiful gate and I think we have to have both else it creates fear, else it creates a loophole for people to just be in a cycle of like ‘hey will I ever be able to be here’…..We have to have a balance in our nation that if it’s going to have a strong wall, it has to have a gate. It has to have a beautiful gate. And if not, it feels like a prison…It feels not like Jesus. Jesus is the door to heaven. The most prized thing is that beautiful door…President [Trump], we also need to make sure we have that beautiful door.”
Objectively, Christians have a duty to submit to the governing authorities, knowing that all authority on earth has been ordained by God. Romans 13:1-2 states, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.”
Immigrants who do not enter the United States through the proper channels or who overstay visas are here illegally. In my view, the laws that govern immigration are not morally reprehensible and there is therefore no reason to resist the laws themselves. Whether the laws are being properly enforced is hard to know. If Federal officers were deporting legal immigrants that would be a problem. If they only deport illegal immigrants, then they are within the law to do so. To speculate on whether the methods of enforcing immigration laws are within the law is an issue in which I am not well versed enough to tackle.
Fortunately, those in the United States have a constitutionally protected right to protest in a peaceable assembly, as granted in the First Amendment, which also guarantees free speech. Subsequently, there is nothing wrong with voicing one’s opinions through social media or peaceful demonstrations, such as standing on a street corner with signs. When protests devolve into violence and the destruction of property, however, the rights of others are violated. For the Founding Fathers, the right to property was essential to liberty. If someone destroys another person’s property, they violate that person’s right to liberty.
We have examples of peaceful protests in our history. Martin Luther King, Jr. led many peaceful marches and protests that ultimately played a large part in securing Civil Rights for African Americans. If people wish to protest ICE and the Trump administration’s enforcement of Federal immigration law, they may do so. They should, however, follow the example of peaceful protesters like MLK, rather than violent protesters such as those this week inflicting costly damage upon businesses and local communities.
More from IRD:
Is it morally right to deport millions of people?
In Charting Immigration Policy, Compassion Is Not Enough
Comment by Douglas E Ehrhardt on June 13, 2025 at 4:53 am
The US has allowed masses of terrorism supporters into the country. And allowed them to set up shop nation wide. They don’t care about or laws.
Comment by Wilson R. on June 13, 2025 at 12:24 pm
Without commenting on the immigration issue or these particular protests, let me just make a general comment about the widespread misunderstanding and misuse of the passage from Romans. The author of this piece states:
“Objectively, Christians have a duty to submit to the governing authorities, knowing that all authority on earth has been ordained by God. Romans 13:1-2 states, ‘Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.'”
In context, Paul’s words make sense. He’s telling these Christian communities not to rock the boat, nor to come across as a threat to Roman order (we find evidence in Acts that they were perceived in just this way, such as the mention of the Roman official who accuses Paul of being “one of those people trying to turn the world upside down.” Besides, underlying all the advice Paul gives (e.g., unmarried people should not marry, while married couples should stay married) is his belief that Jesus is coming back soon, which renders all other questions moot.
But to hang your hat on this verse as a guidepost for all Christians in all situations is to ignore Jesus’ own teaching about rendering to God what belongs to God. Not all things belong to Caesar. When allegiances come into conflict, Christians must choose.
The writer approvingly cites the nonviolent protesters of the Civil Rights era–and I fully agree that Christian protest must be (and all political protest SHOULD be) nonviolent. But he fails to note that the civil rights protesters who integrated lunch counters and bus stations were intentionally breaking the law. They were not simply marching or holding signs. And when you study what they learned and practiced with nonviolent resistance, it’s clear they were engaged in conflict with the civil authorities. They were not submitting, and they certainly did not believe that racial discrimination was ordained by God. Let’s not forget that the word being modified by “nonviolent” was “resistance.”
I am also confident that Paul, who would understand the different contexts of Christians under Roman rule and Christians living in a republic with protections for freedom of speech and religion, would advise present-day Christians differently than he did to those living under an emperor.
Comment by David on June 13, 2025 at 2:33 pm
Look at all the trouble caused when the Egyptians allowed a family a young child to immigrate.
Comment by Gary Bebop on June 13, 2025 at 7:21 pm
Today’s protestors do not have clean hands. Palestinian flags have joined the mayhem. A wedding of movements is occurring. An aggregation of antipathies is forming against the U.S. and Israel. It’s too late to confine what’s happening in discrete silos favored by one club of interest or another. The momentum of events exceeds abstract debate. The dynamics of war have now been unleashed. Remember: “War is the destruction of resources.” The conflict is existential.
Comment by Tim Ware on June 13, 2025 at 10:13 pm
Gary,
Good point. I agree that the world is turning against the US and its client state Israel. The world has wised-up, and the times they are a’changin. The wheels of history turn slowly, so it won’t occur all at once, but this will be looked back upon as a turning point in history. The days of US and Israeli hegemony are numbered. And the world will be better off when those days are but a distant memory. The two biggest destabilizing and murderous forces the world has ever seen will not be missed.
Comment by Tim Mc on June 14, 2025 at 8:19 am
Zechariah 12:3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
Comment by Gary Bebop on June 14, 2025 at 11:30 am
It’s a categorical error to assert that God’s covenant with Israel can be nullified by the forces of darkness. Please don’t make that mistake. To rejoice in attacks on Israel is to join the wrong side of history. Don’t do it.
Comment by Td on June 14, 2025 at 12:38 pm
Tim ware- hahahahaha. You have to be kidding. Just the 20th century alone are chock-full of murderous and destabilizing regimes- Russia, china, nazi germany, all the eastern bloc communist states, multiple african and latin american dictatorships- the list goes on and on. Exactly which nations in the last century are less murderous and destabilizing than the US? Please tell us so we can be enlightened.
Comment by Tim Ware on June 14, 2025 at 8:09 pm
Some of you need to educate yourselves on when Zionism was invented, who invented it and why, and what the traditional, historical position of Christianity was before Zionism was invented.
Comment by Dan W on June 15, 2025 at 10:05 pm
“Some of you need to educate yourselves…”
Perhaps, but the United States doesn’t even rank in the top 10 of destabilizing/murdering governments.
And David, that child from Bethlehem didn’t cause trouble. We were already in trouble, we brought it on ourselves. He brought the solution.
Comment by Cal on June 17, 2025 at 1:16 am
In reality, the religion is flexible enough to justify whatever pre-existing ideology a person has. Want leftist cultural revolution? (Aka “social justice”) A verse can be found and pressed into service. Want peace and the rule of law? There is definitely biblical support. As someone who lives in a leftist controlled metropolitan area, my response is to avoid riots and lawlessness which are basically encouraged by the rulers.
Comment by George on June 17, 2025 at 8:11 pm
Oh David, I really doubt is was an Angel sent by the Lord God Jehovah that led millions of undocumented foreigners here. For you to compare this migration to Jesus, Joseph, and Mary shows us the foolishness that drives your thought process or the lack there of.
Comment by David Gingrich on June 18, 2025 at 7:52 am
The “ICE Riots” were funded by Leftist Democrats, including with taxpayer money given to Leftist NGO’s.