While President Donald Trump’s threat of “mass deportations” remains uncertain, this much is sure: The country is on edge — so much so that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints expressed concern about the “complex challenges and hardships now faced by members who are undocumented immigrants living in the United States” and outlined guidelines for local lay leaders to follow.
Questions abound: The global faith stresses obedience to the law, but how does that jibe with its desire to show compassion to all of God’s children and keep families together? And how far should a church, with a rich immigrant history, go in supporting or resisting a sweeping crackdown?
Here are lightly edited excerpts from The Salt Lake Tribune’s “Mormon Land” podcast with Sam Brunson, a Latter-day Saint law professor who has written recently about the topic, and Erikala Herrera Urena, a Latter-day Saint immigrant from the Dominican Republic who lives near Atlanta and is now a U.S. citizen.
Erikala, how did you get to the U.S. and what did it take to become a citizen?
Herrera • I came here when I was 15 around 2006. My aunt married a U.S. citizen, then she petitioned for my grandma and my granddad. My granddad passed away one week before [their] interview. It was a little bit uncertain what would happen with the case. But they allowed my grandma to come alone. After that, she petitioned for her 12 more kids. [Eventually], all my aunts and uncles came, then it was my mom’s turn. She already had us — four kids — and happily, she got the acceptance so everyone could come together. Five years later, I could apply for citizenship. This country has been a blessing for me.
Were you a Latter-day Saint when you came?
Herrera • No, I joined about 10 years ago because of my sister.
Is there a lot of fear in the community right now among your immigrant friends?
Herrera • Yes, a lot. … Five days ago I had to sit my daughter down and calm her, because she was freaked out. She was saying, “Mom, I don’t want to go to school. I want to stay home because I don’t want us to get separated”... “You don’t have to fear. You don’t have to do that,” I explained to her. But it was so difficult…. I had to stop watching the news with my daughters because they have this fear of going to school.
What effect, if any, Sam, is this having in your Latter-day Saint congregations in Chicago?
Brunson • In the ward that I attend, we have, over the last two years, had a lot of Venezuelan and Latin American refugees and immigrants. Talking to some of our friends — they’re here with five-year legal status as refugees — the father’s afraid to let his son go out because he doesn’t want his son to be swept up, accidentally or deliberately [in deportation raids]. … These immigrant members have been a critical and a vital part of the congregation. They’re a big part of the life of the church here. They participate. They pay tithing. We’ve had wonderful life celebrations with them. This idea that they’re scared and unable to even attend church is damaging for them, for me, personally, and for the church.
What troubled you about the governing First Presidency’s guidelines for lay leaders on undocumented immigrants?
Brunson • Previously, the church provided some amount of housing and other assistance to people who needed it, irrespective of immigration status. These new guidelines say that when a bishop “has reason to believe that someone is undocumented,” they should provide no or limited housing assistance, shouldn’t provide transportation and shouldn’t provide work recommendations. The church says it’s doing this to limit the potential criminal liability of bishops and of other church leaders who provide this type of care. If you continued with the old policy of just providing aid, then there would be no reason that a bishop would know or suspect that someone was undocumented. So it does suggest — at least accidentally — that we should be profiling based on racial categories, which is not great.
Herrera • Yes, profiling hurts. Just yesterday we were trying to buy a pulled pork sandwich at a restaurant. We were waiting at the table for our food, and these four men entered and sat down a little bit next to us, in front of us, and by the time we received our food, I heard one of them ask the other one, “Did you call ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] already?” And he said, “Yes, I did.” I was the only person there that you might think is not an American citizen. So it hurts.
How can the church sustain the law and also help their undocumented members?
Brunson • There’s something more to sustaining the law than just obeying the law. If we look back at Dr. Martin Luther King, there’s the idea that we want a “just law,” and sometimes to have the law be just, we have to push against it. The church has a history of doing this successfully and unsuccessfully. Jesus, through his parables, tells us that those who don’t sustain the stranger are going to be on his left hand, and that’s not the right hand to be on. I think that the church can legitimately say, within the context at least of religion, these laws criminalizing aid to immigrants are unconstitutional. They infringe deeply on important religious beliefs. The country has the ability to enact laws that I think are bad, but churches are in a special position… If [immigration laws] were challenged, I’m not sure what administration really wants to be seen as invading a church and imprisoning clergy whose crime is helping people in need.
Are Latter-day Saints who support the deportation of undocumented immigrants wrong?
Brunson • Yes…. There are legitimate reasons for these laws. I would say that members of the church, in good faith, in good conscience, can support immigration laws and immigration restrictions. But I don’t think in good conscience we can call ICE on our co-congregants. I don’t think that we can be saved if we do that. That flies directly in the face of commands that Jesus has given in the New Testament, that prophets have given in the Old Testament, and that prophets have given in the Book of Mormon. There is a special solicitude for immigrants in basically all scripture.
What would you like to see the church do to help its immigrants?
Herrera • I think the church should fight a little bit more, do more pushback for us and for everyone. It’s not just for us immigrants. It is for everybody.
Brunson • My wish list would be two or three things. One would be to revoke this policy from last week and go back to its previous policy of immigration-status-blind aid. That would be better for immigrants and better for local leadership. The second thing is, I would like to see them either join the Quakers in their challenge of this revocation of the sensitive spaces policy [on the basis of religious liberty]. And then the third thing would be to issue a statement condemning xenophobia and racism toward immigrants generally and or on the basis of immigration status.
To hear the full podcast, go to sltrib.com/podcasts/mormonland. To receive full “Mormon Land” transcripts, along with our complete newsletter and access to all Tribune religion content, support us at Patreon.com/mormonland.
Note to readers • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.
