Sarah Einselen is an award-winning writer and editor based in Saskatchewan, Canada. Follow her on Bluesky at saraheinselen.bsky.social.
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Black Clergy to Lead March as States Eliminate Minority Voting Districts
This Saturday, Black leaders are inviting Americans of all races and faith traditions to rally across the nation to protect minority voting rights in the aftermath of a recent Supreme Court decision weakening the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
“We believe that the gutting of the Voting Rights Act is the latest of many red flags and alarms that the state of our country is not well,” California pastor Rev. Michael McBride told Sojourners this week.
McBride, one of the key organizers for Saturday’s National Day of Action for Voting Rights, said churchgoers in particular “have a moral responsibility … to lift up our voice, that this injustice not be unmet by the faithful among us.”
Pro-Life Coalition Decries ICE Detention Practices: ‘Unborn Children Are Dying’
As the U.S. embarks on a massive expansion of the country’s immigrant detention capacity, a coalition of organizations opposing abortion are calling on President Donald Trump to stop detaining pregnant, postpartum, and nursing immigrant women.
Rehumanize International, which opposes abortion, the death penalty, war, and other forms of “aggressive violence,” spearheaded an open letter to Trump, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Todd Lyons. Dozens of signatories—including representatives of Secular Pro-Life, Live Action, Anglicans for Life, and some state-level affiliates of the National Right to Life Committee—urged the Trump administration to immediately resume enforcing federal policy against holding pregnant and postpartum women in ICE detention.
ICE Started a ‘Five-Alarm Fire’ in Minnesota, Say Refugee Aid Orgs
Faith-based refugee resettlement organizations are raising alarms that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is detaining lawfully resettled refugees in Minnesota, in an operation one resettlement official called “shameful and unpatriotic.”
“This is a five-alarm fire,” Myal Greene, president and CEO of World Relief, said in a press release. “These are not the ‘worst of the worst;’ these are innocent children and families who fled the worst wars and persecution imaginable, who were invited by the American people to become Americans under the terms of American law.
What To Do if ICE Comes to Your Church
Now that President Donald Trump has rescinded longstanding policy limiting U.S. immigration enforcement in churches and other sensitive locations, some church leaders are wondering what they should do if an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer comes knocking.
Trump May Allow ICE Arrests in Churches; Here’s What We Know
A person is arrested, briefly detained, and subsequently released after a group of protestors block the entrance to the lobby of the Center City office of Sen. Bob Casey, in Philadelphia, on Oct. 10, 2018. The group gathers in support of undocumented immigrant Carmela Apolonio Hernandez and daughter Keyri Artillero Apolonio, 14, after they left their sanctuary church to occupy the Senators office. Photo by Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto via Reuters.
After news broke Wednesday that President-elect Donald Trump planned to nix a policy discouraging immigration arrests in places like churches and schools, Indiana pastor Zach Szmara fielded questions from churches across the country about how to prepare.
DeSantis Sent Migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, Churches Welcomed Them
Venezuelan migrants stand outside St. Andrew’s Church in Edgartown, Massachusetts, Sept. 14, 2022. Ray Ewing/Vineyard Gazette via Reuters.
When about 50 people found themselves stranded last week on Martha’s Vineyard, the island’s nonprofit social services agency called on local churches to help. “We rallied and did what any decent human being would do if strangers showed up,” local pastor Rev. Charlotte Wright told Sojourners this week.
Faith Coalitions Are Preparing for Immigrant Advocacy Beyond Title 42
Asylum-seeking migrants are detained by a U.S. Border Patrol agent after crossing the Rio Bravo river to turn themselves in to request asylum in El Paso, Texas, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on March 30, 2022. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez
The Biden administration is fighting a legal battle to end the use of Title 42, a policy that has effectively closed the U.S. Southern Border to asylum-seekers for more than two years. Numerous faith-based organizations that work with immigrants have called on the administration to return to pre-pandemic asylum processing.
Will U.S. Support for Ukrainian Refugees Last?
Ukrainian refugees arrive in Medyka, southeastern Poland, amid a snowfall on March 9, 2022. Kunihiko Miura/The Yomiuri Shimbun via Reuters.
“What is troubling to me, and unsettling, is the fact that this sort of worldwide outpouring of empathy isn't there in other situations that are very similar,” Karen González, an author and immigrant advocate, told Sojourners.
‘An Attempt To Stop Us’ From Doing God's Work
Photo Courtesy FRACEEV.
One measure, an executive order from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, jeopardizes foster care licenses for anyone who takes in unaccompanied immigrant children who arrive in the country without authorization. The other, a bill being fast-tracked through the state legislature, would bar state and local governments from contracting with businesses that knowingly transport undocumented immigrants, including bus companies or airlines.