The U.S. Supreme Court recently granted the Trump administration’s request to revoke the temporary legal status of more than 500,000 immigrants. The ruling makes people from four countries subject to possible deportation.
The specific policy served as a parole program, allowing people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to stay in the country by passing a security check and having a sponsor to provide housing. The Biden-era program has been the subject of ongoing legal challenges.
“It was a really good opportunity for the U.S. to offer protection to people fleeing countries, experiencing really severe humanitarian crises, economic devastation, persecution for political reasons, in some cases, religious reasons,” Matt Soerens, a vice president with World Relief, told CBN News.
Given the court’s decision, Soerens sees a potentially devastating impact on nearly half a million people who entered the U.S. legally, including facing background checks.
“For the administration to seek to send these people back potentially is really discouraging, especially given the state of what people will be going back to in countries like Haiti and Venezuela.”
For example, armed gangs and escalating violence continue to plague Haiti, recently leading several airlines to suspend flights there after gunfire hit three planes.
Brad Jacob, associate dean and professor at Regent University, said while the ruling is straightforward from a legal perspective, it does raise ethical issues.
“This is a policy that was put in place in the Biden administration without a statute of Congress, simply by executive action,” Jacob explained. “The idea that we just don’t care about these people and we’re willing to throw them back in a situation where they might be killed or will live a horrific life, I am not very pleased with that on a moral basis, even though I acknowledge that it’s the president’s power to do it.”
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Soerens said the ruling could also affect churches that have historically played a role in the program.
“We’ve worked with lots of churches to help people, both sponsor acquaintances or loved ones who are in these countries, also help churches to receive them,” said Soerens. “The administration could send these people back if they choose to. And I think obviously that’s devastating to churches in the United States and to our brothers and sisters who could face persecution.”
Pastor Gabriel Salguero, founder of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, agrees with that assessment.
“I think without question, when you begin to revoke temporary protected status, which I want to remind everyone again, is legal, you’re going to impact church attendance; you’re going to impact leaders and volunteers in the church,” Salguero said in an interview with CBN News.
Salguero also believes that more needs to be done to fix the country’s broken immigration system.
“Executive orders, whether they’re Democrats or Republicans, do not provide long-term solutions,” Salguero said. “We need Congress to act to provide long-term solutions. At the same time as pastors, we don’t ask people for their immigration status. We are called by Christ to serve men, women, and children, no matter where they were born.”
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