Evangelical Pastors Built Trump's Deportation Machine. Now It's Coming For Their Churches

Evangelical leaders gave Trump the mandate for mass deportations. Now ICE is arresting their deacons, emptying their pews, and closing their churches. Pastor Erick Salgado told his Brooklyn congregation "they are after criminals." Then they took Sebastián Renoj — his deacon of 18 years.

On January 15, ICE agents sat in a van outside a Brooklyn apartment building and waited for Sebastián Renoj. He was 57 years old, a bricklayer, a choir singer, and the deacon of Iglesia Jóvenes Cristianos — the church secretary for 18 years with a completely clean record. He walked out his front door at 5am and ICE grabbed him on the sidewalk. Six other Guatemalan men were arrested that same morning. All heading to work. A federal judge later reviewed Renoj's case and found no violent charges, no criminal history, and no justification for the arrest. The deportation was paused.

Pastor Erick Salgado — a Bronx-born Puerto Rican who leads a Guatemalan congregation in South Brooklyn — had been telling his flock not to fear ICE for months. "They are after criminals," he said. After Renoj's arrest, Salgado stood in 12-degree temperatures outside a New Jersey detention center for four hours to see his friend for fifteen minutes. He came back with a different message. His quote: "They're fishing in this neighborhood. They're profiling. They're only going after people with boots and work pants."

NBC News reports today that evangelical pastors across the country are now denouncing the ICE crackdowns after attendance drops and church closures hit their own congregations. The machine they gave a mandate to doesn't read church directories.

It doesn't check years of service. One Latino evangelical leader said it plainly:

"You're deporting the future of American Christianity." 400,000 people have been

detained since Trump's second term began. The pews are empty. And the deacon is still in detention.

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