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ICE is forcing a reckoning among America’s religious leaders
Minister JaNaé Imari addresses the crowd at a press conference held by community faith leaders on January 8, 2026, in Minneapolis. | Jerry Holt/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images
It’s a recurring feature of anti-ICE protests: the presence of pastors, priests, and reverends on the front lines of demonstrations, and behind-the-scenes, organizing in their communities.
Key takeaways
Religious leaders in Minnesota have been both publicly and quietly tending to their communities in the wake of ICE and DHS surges to the state as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. Many view this moment as a time for moral clarity and resistance. But not every congregation or denomination is responding in the same way. There’s every reason to believe this dynamic will intensify so long as ICE continues to operate in the state.In Chicago last year, religious leaders were pepper sprayed or shot with pepper balls. In Minneapolis this month, they’ve joined protesters in calling for restraint from federal agents and humane treatment of immigrants. And nationally, there is growing realization from some leaders of the need for moral clarity and pushback to the Trump administration.
But religious leaders and their followers aren’t all reacting in the same way to the federal government’s mass deportation surges.
A recent anti-ICE protest in St. Paul, which interrupted a service at a Southern Baptist church with alleged ties to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, grabbed national attention, sparked outrage from the religious right, and impelled the White House to promise arrests and investigations. And it also triggered responses from some Christian leaders who have been more reticent to criticize the administration.
To break down these divisions and the different ways that religious leaders in and beyond Minnesota are responding, I decided to ask an expert. Jack Jenkins is a national reporter for the Religion News Service, where he covers religion and politics. He spoke to me in between trips to Minneapolis, where multifaith leaders will be meeting this week to organize and discuss ways to tend to their communities and respond to ICE’s presence.
Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
I want to start off with a bird’s-eye view. Can you describe how religious communities, both believers and their leaders, are responding to ICE’s presence in Minnesota right now?
I spent most of my time in Minneapolis and it is much easier to find someone who is vehemently opposed to ICE than the opposite. I think for a lot of faith communities there’s an immediate concern for the people they serve.
For instance, pastors that oversee immigrant-heavy congregations. I spoke to a pastor out there; that’s a lot of stress. They are also very much........
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