Immigration Statement

Presented on Feb. 27, 2026 on the grounds of Richmond’s First Baptist Church by Catholic, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Episcopal, and Assemblies of God pastors.

As pastors and Christian leaders serving congregations across the Richmond region, we are bound to our people and to this city by our shared life in Jesus Christ. We love Richmond. We love our country. We pray regularly for our civic leaders and for the peace and flourishing of our communities.

It is precisely because of that love that we feel compelled to speak clearly in this moment.

We are deeply concerned about the growing climate of fear surrounding immigrants in our nation and in our own city. We are grieved by rhetoric that dehumanizes those made in the image of God. We are troubled by policies and practices that separate families, sow anxiety among children, and create fear around schools, hospitals, houses of worship, and neighborhoods. We lament the tone of our public discourse, in which immigrants are often treated not as neighbors but as threats.

As followers of Jesus Christ, our convictions are not shaped first by political ideology, but by Scripture.

The Bible begins with the declaration that every human being is created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27). That dignity does not fluctuate with citizenship, documentation, language, or national origin. A person’s legal status does not determine their worth before God.

Throughout the Old Testament, God repeatedly commands His people to care for “the sojourner” and “the stranger.” “You shall love the stranger as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 19:34). The Lord “loves the alien, giving him food and clothing” and commands His people to do the same (Deuteronomy 10:18–19). The prophets condemn those who oppress the foreigner alongside the widow and the orphan (Zechariah 7:10).

In Jesus Christ, these commands are intensified, not relaxed. Our Lord Himself became a refugee as a child. He crossed social, ethnic, and religious boundaries in His ministry. He told the story of a Good Samaritan who embodied neighbor-love across hostility and difference. He taught that whatever we do for “the least of these,” we do for Him (Matthew 25:40). The Church’s concern for immigrants is not political fashion; it is obedience to Christ.

We therefore reject nativism, ethno-centrism, racialized fear, and any ideology that suggests that our nation belongs more to some than to others. Such tribalism is incompatible with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Kingdom of God is not built on ethnic homogeneity but on reconciliation. In Christ, those who were once strangers have been brought near (Ephesians 2:12–19).

Cultural diversity is not a threat to Christian faith; it is a reflection of the manifold wisdom of God. Scripture culminates in a vision of every tribe and tongue and nation gathered before the throne of God (Revelation 7:9). The Church itself is called to be a foretaste of that coming reality. When we treat cultural difference as danger rather than gift, we contradict the trajectory of redemption.

Our own city of Richmond carries a long and painful history of racial oppression, exclusion, division and hierarchy. We cannot ignore that history as we consider how fear and suspicion once again shape public conversation. Faithfulness to Christ requires that we learn from our past rather than repeat it.

We affirm that nations have a responsibility to regulate their borders and to establish just and orderly immigration systems for the sake of the common good. Law and order are not enemies of compassion. Human dignity and national security need not be in conflict. A healthy society requires clear processes and meaningful reform.

We recognize that there is an important legal distinction between those who enter or remain in our country through lawful processes and those who do not. Respect for the rule of law is essential to a healthy society. Yet the existence of a law does not relieve us of the obligation to apply it with justice, mercy, proportionality, and due process. Scripture does not condition our obligation to love the stranger upon their immigration status. Indiscriminate mass deportation, the separation of families, the erosion of due process, and rhetoric that portrays entire communities as criminal or dangerous violate the spirit of Christ and corrode our common life. We must be able to uphold the law while refusing to dehumanize those who live under its penalties.

We also acknowledge that our nation’s immigration system is in urgent need of serious and comprehensive reform. Decades of legislative gridlock have produced a system that is confusing, inconsistent, and often unjust in its outcomes. When legal pathways are inaccessible or unrealistically narrow, both enforcement and human dignity suffer. We call upon our elected leaders to pursue reforms that secure the border, establish fair and workable legal processes, protect families, and reflect both justice and mercy.

To our immigrant neighbors in Richmond: you are not invisible to God, and you are not alone. Your lives, your labor, your families, and your faith enrich our churches and strengthen our city. When one member of the body suffers, we all suffer (1 Corinthians 12:26).

To all our fellow Christians: this is a moment that calls for moral seriousness, not indifference. We trust that each congregation, tradition, and individual must discern, before God and in good conscience, what obedience looks like in this season. Some are called to quiet, steady accompaniment of families under threat. Some are called to works of mercy –  legal aid, pastoral care, hospitality, and practical support. Some are called to public advocacy, to peaceful protest, or to policy engagement. Some are called to sustained prayer and spiritual intercession. We do not presume that every Christian must respond in the same way. But we are convinced that none of us is permitted to respond with silence, cruelty, or apathy.

We offer this statement not in despair but in hope. 

Our hope is not in a political party or platform, but in the crucified and risen Christ, who breaks down dividing walls of hostility and makes strangers into family. Because we belong to Him, we cannot remain silent when fear overpowers compassion or when the vulnerable are treated as disposable.

As disciples of Jesus Christ in Richmond, we commit ourselves to embodying a different way — a way of truth without cruelty, law without dehumanization, and love without fear. We pray for the peace of our city, for wisdom for our leaders, and for a renewal of our common life rooted in the dignity of every person made in the image of God.

May the Lord grant us courage to be faithful in this hour.