LOS ANGELES (RNS) — The spectacle created over the past month by President Donald Trump’s decision to send U.S. Marines and the National Guard into our city has subsided. Our work to get U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement out of Los Angeles, however, is not over.
We represent a broad, multifaith movement of faith leaders and believers aimed at uplifting the dignity of each human being, regardless of immigration status. We call upon the consciences of our political leaders to respect that inherent dignity and end the racial profiling and indiscriminate raids against innocent mothers, fathers and children that continue to terrorize Los Angeles. We equally call upon people of all faiths and none to stand in solidarity with their immigrant neighbors.
In recent weeks, we have prayed with family members uncertain of when, or whether, they will see their loved ones again. Faith leaders have been tear-gassed near Home Depot in Paramount, just south of LA, and had “less than lethal” weapons trained on us while we knelt in prayer before the federal building in downtown Los Angeles. A federal agent pointed a gun at the Rev. Tanya Lopez on her own church’s property and, when told to leave the premises, claimed, “The whole country is our property.”
We have been moved by the deepest tenets of our religions to stand with our families, congregants and neighbors who are facing the cruelty and scapegoating by this administration. The Trump administration’s attacks on immigrants and on our community here in Los Angeles are not simply policy issues. They are about the moral compass of our society. These actions stand against the very heart of love at the center of our religions.
The Torah, or Hebrew Bible, tells us again and again, in the most repeated commandment, that we must care for the orphan, the widow and the stranger. “You are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners,” reads the Book of Deuteronomy.
Protesters gather after federal immigration authorities conducted an operation on June 6, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
According to the hadith, or collected teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), he said: “The believers, in their mutual love, compassion, and mercy, are like a single body. When one part of it suffers, the whole body responds with sleeplessness and fever.”
Likewise, Eastern traditions call us to see past the delusion of separation between them and us, citizen and immigrant. The Buddhist concept of “no self,” for instance, does not deny our existence; rather, it teaches that we are not islands of ourselves, but part of a collective, interconnected with one another.
Seven of the Ten Commandments in Judeo-Christian tradition are focused on not harming another person with words, actions and negative emotions. Jesus said that after loving God, the second most important commandment is to “love your neighbor as yourself,” echoing the Hebrew Bible’s Book of Leviticus and the golden rule that guides people of all faiths and none.
For believers in God, honoring every person’s dignity is a divine imperative. We cannot turn our backs on God or the immigrant. This cruelty must stop because we are breaking the law of God.
Apparent immigration agents, who failed to identify themselves, detain an individual in the parking lot of Downey Memorial Christian Church, June 11, 2025, in Downey, Calif. (Photo by Tanya Lopez)
These sincerely held beliefs drive people of many different traditions to serve migrants, regardless of the administration in power. Under both Democratic and Republican administrations, faith organizations have supported the resettlement of refugees, provided legal services to adults and children, offered spiritual care and advocated for a more humane immigration system. As Archbishop Jose Gomez wrote, the ideas behind comprehensive immigration reform are not new.
What is new is the current administration’s aggressive cruel tactics, disregard for immigrants’ rights and due process, and the involvement of the military.
The narrative that the government is capturing only hardened criminals is not true. As clergy, we’ve witnessed as people following the law, showing up for their immigration court dates, are arrested. Plainclothed ICE agents wait for them in the lobby to kidnap them as they exit a hearing. In the streets and in workplaces, agents cover their faces and refuse to offer a name or badge number as they harass and arrest people for simply looking Hispanic.
Those arrested are taken to clandestine prisons with no access to family members or attorneys. Even the basics of food, water and blankets are often withheld. People are not supposed to “disappear” for days in the United States of America. Trump has demanded ICE meet quotas for the numbers he wants to round up and deport. But the arrested are not numbers; they are human beings.
Serving our fellow humans, regardless of immigration status, is not only a religious responsibility but a constitutional right under the First Amendment. We have the right both to assemble peacefully in protest and to exercise our religious beliefs in caring for migrants.
But now, the federal government is trampling on those rights by threatening immigration advocates. The U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security is investigating more than 200 nonprofits, including United Methodist and Catholic groups, for aiding migrants.
Protesters, including many clergy, gather to denounce U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, June 10, 2025, in downtown Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Some, including fellow clergy, have asked us why we have participated in protests and prayer vigils that have ended in front of the federal building, protected by the National Guard. While the raids and the fear they have created have directly impacted many congregations, they are not a threat for others.
Nonetheless, many of us are intimately familiar with the dehumanization and scapegoating on display right now, and we will not stand by as a vulnerable group is blamed for the ills of society. We have experienced our country’s history of violence against its own people.
We will not abandon the current targets of oppression. We will not let apathy or fear keep us silent.
As faith leaders, our power is in our ability to organize communities, lead rituals of peace and healing, preach and pray. We continue to fast daily at Placita Olvera in downtown LA, respond to rapid-response calls, hold vigils after raids across the Los Angeles basin, accompany those coming to their immigration court appearances and take part in nonviolent protests. Our voices are our contribution to movements toward justice, reconciliation and hope.
We call on our fellow faith leaders, our government leaders, our congregants and all people of goodwill to act from your deepest convictions. Show up how and where you can. Find your own power and use it to push for change. Together, let us create a society in which all of us are welcome, and our dignity and rights are secure.
(Rabbi Susan Goldberg is the founding rabbi of Nefesh. The Rev. Najuma Smith-Pollard is pastor of Word of Encouragement Community Church and assistant director of public and community engagement at the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture, where Soraya Ahyaudin is assistant director for learning design and programs. Guillermo Torres is immigration program director at Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice. Tanny Jiraprapasuke is a Thai Theravāda Buddhist chaplain. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily represent those of Religion News Service.)
