Prominent evangelical leaders are condemning the Trump administration’s efforts to deport Iraqi immigrants, which include Chaldean Christians, as part of a deal struck with the Iraqi government to remove the country from the Trump administration’s travel ban.
Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention and six others wrote Homeland Security secretary John Kelly in a letter dated Monday to oppose the administration’s plan, which has swept up hundreds of immigrants. Less than two weeks ago, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 114 Iraqis in Michigan, a crackdown the government defended by arguing that the detainees had criminal pasts and were a threat to the public. The letter reads, in part:
The letter argues that the current climate in Iraq could result in the persecution or death of deportees due to their religious faith. Moore tweeted Saturday that the deportation of at-risk Iraqis was “wrong, wrong, wrong,” and would be “a death sentence for those we should be protecting.”
While Moore has been critical of President Trump, even Trump supporters have expressed disappointment with the deportations. Prominent evangelical Franklin Graham, a longtime Trump supporter, wrote on Facebook that the news was “very disturbing.”
The ACLU also has jumped to the detainees’ defense, filing a class action lawsuit on their behalf. Their petition argues that “U.S. law prohibits the removal of individuals to countries where they would face a likelihood of persecution or torture.”
That likelihood is strong. The situation in Iraq is dire for Christians. Open Doors’ World Watch List ranks Iraq as the seventh most difficult nation to live as a Christian. Before the Iraq war began in 2003, there were 1.4 million Christians in Iraq; the number has now fallen below 250,000. One Anglican vicar who worked for years in Baghdad said in March, “The time has come where it is over, no Christians will be left.”
The move represents a reversal of the Trump administration’s previous attitude toward Middle Eastern Christians. Speaking at the World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians in May, Vice President Mike Pence said, “I believe ISIS is guilty of nothing short of genocide against people of the Christian faith, and it is time the world called it by name.” President Trump has also called the persecution of Christians by ISIS “absolute and total genocide.”
