In an increasingly strained political environment for undocumented immigrants across the United States, lay leaders in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have sought direction about how to assist these members compassionately and legally.
On Thursday, the global faith’s governing First Presidency sent a set of letters intended to do just that.
To church members in general, the church reiterated its long-standing principles — to obey the law, love all God’s children, provide basic food and clothing, and work to keep families together.
In a separate letter addressed to “general authorities, area Seventies, and stake [regional] presidents serving in the United States,” church President Russell M. Nelson and his two counselors said they “are concerned about the complex challenges and hardships now faced by members who are undocumented immigrants.”
The trio then offered more specific guidelines for navigating new and changing federal rules, including President Donald Trump’s threat of “mass deportation.”
In helping undocumented members, local leaders may use “fast-offering [locally generated] funds to provide temporary assistance for essential needs like food, clothing, and medical care,” the guidelines stated. They may refer families “to community resources that address their immigration issues or help prepare them for possible separation in cases where family members may be deported.”
These leaders, though, “should not provide legal advice, testify in legal proceedings, or sponsor immigration efforts,” the First Presidency advised. If bishops have a reason to believe a member is “not authorized to work, they should avoid potential conflicts with federal law by avoiding or limiting housing assistance, not transporting the person outside the local community, and not referring the person for employment.”
The First Presidency also ruled out chapels as potential sanctuaries for immigrants lacking permanent legal status.
“Church buildings and resources,” the guidelines said, “should not be used to help shield individuals from law enforcement.”
For further questions, local bishops and stake presidents were told to reach out to the church’s Office of General Counsel office via a hotline.
The legal advice “is as straightforward as it gets,” said Charles Kuck, a Latter-day Saint immigration attorney in Atlanta, “and is completely consistent with what I understood prior guidance to be.”
The church “is correctly concerned with the law on harboring and transporting undocumented members,” the lawyer said. “I don’t think it has anything to worry about in the context of harboring or transporting members to church services or other projects, but it’s wise for a General Counsel Office to exercise precaution.”
The Utah-based faith “does a lot of work on religious liberty and that to me means that the church should insist on protecting all of its constitutional rights — including insisting on an actual judicial warrant to enter church premises, especially the chapel,” Kuck said. “It is not obstructing law enforcement to insist they actually follow the law, too.”
The attorney has offered advice to undocumented immigrants on their rights if detained, including “the right to refuse to answer any questions from [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents and the right to request to speak to an immigration attorney,” he said on his office’s website. “You do not have to hand over any documents, such as passports or consular IDs, unless ICE agents have a warrant signed by a judge.”
Given the number of foreign language Latter-day Saint congregations in the U.S., Kuck said, “it is easy to believe there are hundreds of thousands of church members who are undocumented.”
For the church, he said, taking care of immigrants “is not an insignificant problem.”
