Faith traditions call us to welcome the stranger, protect the vulnerable, and love our neighbors.
In the face of renewed ICE enforcement actions and immigration raids, we must be ready to act swiftly, courageously, and in solidarity.
This rapid-response action plan for churches and faith communities to protect people during ICE raids is the brainchild of evangelical pastor Doug Pagitt and his group Vote Common Good, which is not only providing these resources to the faith communities in his network, but also sending an open letter to the White House Faith Office calling for justice and compassion for immigrants, and slamming plans to open more detention centers like Florida’s Everglades detention facility. Thousands of faith leaders and congregations cosigned the letter.
This Faith Community Action Plan contains all of the resources you need to protect our neighbors, including a Sample Covenant Statement for Your Church, Know-Your-Rights information, and documents you can share and print.
Beyond also forming a rapid-response team of dedicated volunteers to monitor reports of raids, verify them, show up to raids as moral witnesses, and coordinate shelter, transportation, and legal aid for vulnerable immigrants, Pagitt realized Vote Common Good would need a robust mass-alert system because of ICE’s new, aggressive tactics of showing up unexpectedly at places that were previously off-limits.
That’s where WhatsApp comes in. A favorite of immigrant communities, including those from Latin America, the app allows information to travel freely and instantaneously. Pagitt is calling on churches to set up their own WhatsApp alert networks, allowing each community to decide who needs to be notified when. The goal is that when ICE conducts a raid, houses of worship can answer their congregants’ questions about their rights, where to go, where to drop off their kids.
“We’re all out here trying to put a trampoline together without instructions, we just see springs and poles,” Pagitt said. “But we’re trying to help people see what they can do to make a difference.”
Pagitt sees community-building as the best response to Trump’s campaign of shock and fear. His White House letter-writing campaign is an example of trying to show moral leadership during desperate times. The letter begins by saying “Trump’s internment camps are a moral stain on our nation” and notes that along with the reported human rights abuses in the Everglades detention facility, more such facilities are set to be built, including the new detention facility in Fort Bliss, dubbed by Sen. John Cornyn the “Lone Star Lockup,” slated to hold a thousand people.
Beyond the letters, Pagitt is looking to coordinate actions at new detention-center sites, including the one at Fort Bliss and others expected to be established in Michigan, Florida, Oregon, and Georgia.
“You can stay nonpartisan and say, ‘We don’t think a detention center is the right way for people to be treated,’” Pagitt said.
“The alternative to fear is information, resources, and support,” he said. “Our message is not ‘Don’t be afraid’—it’s ‘If you’re afraid, these are people to reach out to.’”
Like many MAGA critics, Pagitt has been disappointed to see the way church groups have been co-opted and bullied during Trump’s second term.
“Much to my sadness, we’ve seen faith communities quiver and shake and be afraid like universities and law firms and so many institutions,” he said. “We want to be on the other side of that and say to skeptical people of good conscience to not play the silent hypocrite card—that would be pretty good.”