It’s safe to assume that in any other circumstance, dozens of congregants vanishing from a Christian church would probably merit some attention from the so-called “most evangelical cabinet in history,” of whom at least a dozen members attend a weekly Bible study, according to Christian outlet CBN News. But these missing congregants in New York’s Fort Edward are brown, and they’re vanishing because they live in such fear of Donald Trump’s deportation force, that they are too afraid to leave their homes and worship:
Until three undocumented immigrants were rounded up and processed by ICE agents in March, St. Joseph’s Church in Fort Edward on Sundays was a melting pot of faces.
Members of up to 12 Mexican immigrant families, about 50 people in total, could be seen in the pews and at the altar, where Mexican immigrant children served as altar boys and girls.
“No more,” the Rev. Tom Babiuch said solemnly in a recent interview. “They don’t come here anymore. They’re afraid to step out and have a normal life.”
“This country has been built on Christian values and Christian messages,” said Rev. Babiuch. “To do this to these people is totally unChristian.”
Houses of worship across the nation have especially been in tune to the crisis facing America’s immigrant families, responding to mass deportation fears by vowing to offer sanctuary to undocumented immigrants facing deportation:
Most recently, Jeanette Vizguerra, another undocumented mom with no criminal record, won a two-year stay of deportation after spending nearly 90 days in a Denver church. While she was in sanctuary, Vizguerra was named one of Time’s 100 most influential people in the world for becoming a national face of the 21st-century sanctuary movement, one that stands to have an important role in keeping families together during Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant crackdown.
In New York, St. Joseph’s Church has formed a support group, North Country Immigration Support, to not only assist the immigrant and Latino members of their congregation, but to also educate non-immigrants in the community about the issue of immigration. They get that views can shift once you find out that your neighbor, your coworker, or your friend is undocumented, something playing out in real-life at St. Joseph’s:
“They used to fill the first five pews,” said Nancy LaFave, the music director, pointing to the left side of the church.
“Now they’re afraid to come,” choir member Brigitte Steffens said.
The Post Star, which featured the story on St. Joseph’s Church, talked to other undocumented immigrants in the community on the fear they are facing in Donald Trump’s America:
“I understand we are here not being citizens, but we came with no bad intentions, just to work,” Alice said.
Beth, another of the women, who is here on a legal work visa, called Trump a “showman” who “can’t relate.”
“He’s not interested in people. He just likes power,” she said. “And he doesn’t want to learn.”
“But he’s winning, because now we’re all scared,” Alice said.
Headlines were made recently when the Department of Homeland Security announced a one-time increase of 15,000 seasonal work visas for the rest of this season. But only days earlier, The Washington Post reported internal sources saying Trump was weighing an expansion of Homeland Security powers to speed up the removal of illegal immigrants who can’t prove they have lived in the United States for at least 90 days.
Regardless, the local immigrants, many of whom have lived and worked here for a decade or more, are scared.
“We’d be willing to pay a fine to stay. We don’t even need to be citizens, just legal,” Amy said.
Catholic leaders have a lot of access in this administration—Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, was at Trump’s side in May for the signing of a “religious liberty” executive order—and they need to start speaking out for their Latino and immigrant parishioners, or this will be the future of the U.S. Catholic Church. Looking at you, Cardinals Timothy Dolan and Seán Patrick O'Malley. Pope Francis has shown courage on immigration. Where’s yours?