Press Statement By Evangelical Leaders

This statement was given by Carl Nelson at a press conference in Minneapolis, Jan. 22 with the Faithful Witness Coalition including the National Latino Evangelical Coalition and World Relief and CCDA and UNDIVIDED along with local partners.

January 22, 2026
Minneapolis, MN

As evangelical pastors serving communities across our state, we gather today out of deep concern for Minnesota, and especially for our immigrant brothers and sisters in Christ, many of whom are living in fear right now.

Our hearts are heavy for them.

We believe the Church is called to bear witness to the life, the teaching, and the way of Jesus Christ in moments of crisis.

This is one of those moments.

Let us be clear at the outset. We affirm the legitimate enforcement of immigration laws, and we agree on this point: violent criminal immigrants should be identified, arrested, and removed from our communities to protect public safety.

If that were all that was happening in Minnesota today, we would not be standing here.

Instead, stories are multiplying every day of law-abiding immigrants, refugees with legal status, and even US Citizens of immigrant descent being caught up in broad and indiscriminate enforcement activity.

Immigrant believers are afraid to leave their homes to go to work or attend worship. Some congregations have been forced to return to Covid-era virtual services out of fear. Pastors we know have been stopped and asked to prove their citizenship. American-born colleagues, because of their skin color, have been confronted by groups of agents and asked to show identification or proof of citizenship while doing their jobs.

We must ask a serious question: Do we want to live in a country where U.S. citizens feel compelled to carry a passport or birth certificate just to leave their homes? Do we want to live in a country where many of the immigrants who run our restaurants, care for elderly in our nursing homes, go to schoole with us and worship alongside of us on Sunday mornings are living in such fear?

The Bible teaches Christians that government exists to restrain evil and reward good (Romans 13). It also teaches that every person is made in the image of God (Genesis 1), and that justice must be joined with mercy and humility before God (Micah 6).

Governing authorities are accountable to God not only for enforcing the law, but for ensuring that laws are enforced justly, humanely, and with restraint.

Sweeping, militarized enforcement tactics and dragnet arrests that indiscriminately target families and workers undermine trust, destabilize households, and violate the spirit of due process that upholds the rule of law.

Evangelical Christians place a high priority on the sanctity of life, human dignity, and family unity. An orderly and just approach to immigration enforcement must adhere to those values.

We call on our public leaders at a state and national level to take a different course of action: come together to focus on removing violent offenders from our community, but end the indiscriminate enforcement activities that are affecting our whole community so that lawfully admitted immigrants, refugees, and law-abiding families can work, worship, and live in peace.

(See also Open Letter from Catholic, Evangelical, and Jewish Leaders)