In recent days, ICE detained Pastor Nephthali Zozaya Saucedo and his wife, Pastor Cinthia Sarai Cardona Otero, while they traveled to a pastors’ retreat. The couple has served for more than a decade as leaders at Comunidad Cristiana Emmanuel, an Assemblies of God congregation in the Texas Gulf Hispanic District. They have three U.S. citizen children. A group of faith leaders quickly issued a press release calling an emergency meeting and urging their “immediate release and reunification” with those children. The tone of the release treats the enforcement of immigration law as a moral outrage requiring Christian rebuke of government officials.
H/T Megan Basham
This response is misguided and unbecoming for Christians. Nations have the God-given authority to establish and enforce borders. When individuals knowingly violate those laws for years, including those who hold the office of pastor, the faithful response is not to demand special exemption but to support the just application of the law.
Scripture is clear on submission to governing authorities. Romans 13:1-7 instructs believers that “there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” Governing authorities are “God’s servant for your good” and bear the sword to punish wrongdoing. Civil laws that define who may enter and remain in a nation are not inherently unjust; they reflect the ordered responsibility of rulers to protect the common good of their citizens. The Apostle Paul, who lived under Roman rule that was often harsh and pagan, still commanded obedience to lawful authority. He did not carve out exceptions for religious leaders who preferred their own arrangements.
These pastors are alleged to have resided unlawfully in the United States for over a decade and dropped anchor babies to game America’s birthright citizenship scam. The press release from the faith leaders does not attempt to deny the core allegation. Living and working in a country without legal authorization is a sustained violation of just law. When the people involved are pastors, the problem compounds. Church leaders are called to be examples (1 Timothy 3; Titus 1). Modeling long-term disregard for civil statutes undermines the church’s witness. What message does it send to congregations, to children, and to the watching world when those who preach obedience to God simultaneously treat the laws of the land as optional?
Faith leaders who rush to condemn enforcement while remaining silent about the underlying violation invert biblical priorities. They treat the government as the primary offender and the lawbreakers as victims requiring special protection. This pattern weakens the church’s credibility. Christians should urge fellow believers who have violated immigration law to pursue every lawful means of compliance, to repent of sustained disobedience where applicable, and to entrust outcomes to the Lord. Calling for the release of those who have lived outside the law for a decade, without addressing that fact, signals that religious status confers immunity.
A nation that cannot decide who resides within its borders ceases to function as a coherent political community. Christians who affirm the legitimacy of the state must also affirm its right and duty to enforce immigration statutes. Selective enforcement or religious exemptions for (egalitarian) pastors erode the rule of law that protects everyone, including churches. Supporting deportation in cases like this is not hardness of heart; it is consistency with the biblical teaching that love of neighbor includes respect for the ordered structures God has ordained for human society.
The church’s higher calling is to proclaim the gospel, make disciples, and live as sojourners whose ultimate citizenship is in heaven. That calling is not advanced by shielding prolonged illegal presence or by pressuring authorities to set aside just laws. It is advanced when pastors and congregations model integrity in every sphere, including the civil one. In this instance, the pro-deportation position aligns with that integrity: enforce the law impartially, call lawbreakers, including those in ministry, to accountability, care wisely for children caught in the consequences of adult choices, and refuse to let emotional framing override clear biblical principles of authority and justice.
One Response
1 Timothy 4:2 “Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;” It’s so strange to me that these people do not recognize these “pastors” are participating in theft, and lying. They undoubtedly used public schools and so came here to have kids and force others to pay for their education. When you are in a mixed socialistic society, like the US, illegal entry (the original lie) and illegal participation in the society, even overstaying a visa becomes theft. What half-truths have they been stating on tax returns? Did they vote? All this theft and lying about it has created the economic downturn we are in and what will be exacerbated (according to many analysts) probably beginning next year, then for years to come. We pretend we are not forcing people who do not use schools to pay for their education and transportation and that Banks are loaning money they have on deposit but in fact are creating it through loans, counterfeiting basically. We pretend Government is efficient. Doom awaits, the doctrines of devils is coming the wind is sown and here comes the whirlwind.