One of the immigration directives of the new Trump Administration opens up churches and other previously protected locations to raids by government agents looking for undocumented immigrants.
That has raised concerns for churches serving immigrant families in Central Florida. Some church leaders worry about religious freedom and say the change is making people afraid to come in and worship.
Pentecostal Pastor Gabriel Salguero leads a truly bilingual English and Spanish service Sunday mornings at The Gathering Place in Orlando. He speaks -- or sings -- in one language and his wife, the Rev. Jeannette Salguero, seamlessly translates to the other.
They welcome a family of asylum-seekers from Colombia. The mother, father and 16-year-old daughter are in the front row.
Don't be afraid, he told them, because God is watching over you and you are not alone.
"Not only our God," said Jeannette Salguero in translation, "you have a church here. You have a family here now, that prays with you, that intercedes."
Gabriel Salguero said he wants the church to be a welcoming place, regardless of immigration status.
"People should feel free to come to worship and to serve God and sing and clap and have their children come to Sunday school without the fear of them being separated," the pastor said in an interview at the church. "This is a holy place, and holy places need to be respected."
He leads the National Latino Evangelical Coalition. He said they recently held training for 500 pastors, focusing on how to respond if there's an immigration enforcement action in their church.
"And so we've heard things like, 'We're concerned. What are our rights? What can we do? What can't we do?'" Gabriel Salguero said. "And so there's a lot of questions, both pragmatic and emotional and spiritual."
He said several members of the coalition have seen a drop-off in attendance. He’s seeing some change, too, but won’t know the full impact for a few weeks.
Other religious organizations -- including Catholic bishops and Quaker groups -- have strongly objected to the change in policy.
But there's still disagreement among Christian leaders.
Mat Staver is founder of the Christian conservative Liberty Counsel in Orlando. On immigration, he said, a complex set of issues has "different people of faith" focused on different priorities.
"On the one hand, I think there's a universality on wanting to help those who are immigrants," he said. "But on the other hand, there is this idea of wanting to have law and order and protect our citizens."
Religious liberty -- along with opposition to abortion and to LGBTQ+ rights -- is a focus of the Liberty Counsel. But Staver does not see a problem with opening churches to immigration enforcement.
"I don't see this as a religious liberty issue," he said. "Churches are still able to minister to the homeless, to those who are illegal, and to do everything that they've always been able to do. But one thing that they can't do is be a place where the laws of our civil society no longer apply."
At Christ the King Episcopal Church in Orlando's Azalea Park, the co-rector, the Rev. José Rodriguez, believes it does come down to religious freedom.
"The reality is," he said, "many people who aren't directly impacted by immigration are directly impacted by this, because this is a violation of their sense of safety, their sense of holiness, their sense of the sacredness of what church is."
Rodriguez said people are asking: Will they kick in the doors? Will they stop the worship service?
"It's not evoking images of law and order," he said. "It's evoking images of brute force and disruption and chaos ... and it's already having the effect of people saying, 'You know what, I'm not going to go worship.'"
Rodriguez says that's especially true for Latino immigrants from countries with a history of religious persecution. The raids may never come, he said, but there’s still the shock and fear of government interference in the free practice of religion.
Christian churches have a long history as sanctuaries and safe harbor for migrants and others, including people fleeing slavery in the 1800s. In 2011, during the Obama Administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a policy protecting churches and other sensitive locations, except in limited emergency situations and with supervisory approval.
On Jan. 21, the day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Department of Homeland Security rescinded that policy.
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