AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Since January, religious leaders from local pastors to Pope Leo have rallied against the Trump administration's detention and deportation of thousands of immigrants. Clergy are filing lawsuits, accompanying migrants to court hearings and leading protests at ICE facilities across the country. Altogether, this activity adds up to one of the largest surges of faith-based organizing in recent history, and it's growing. Jack Jenkins of Religion News Service has more. And a warning to listeners - this story does contain the sound of nonlethal gunfire.
JACK JENKINS: The sound you're about to hear is the thud of high-velocity pepper balls slamming into the head and body of Reverend David Black. He was praying outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Illinois at the time.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Oh, my God.
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JENKINS: The explosive noise you'll hear next is Reverend Jorge Bautista being shot in the face with a pepper round while protesting against ICE in Oakland, California. The round was fired from a grenade launcher from just a few feet away.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Holy [expletive]. Shot him right in his face, you [expletive] (ph).
JENKINS: Both pastors were shot by Department of Homeland Security agents over the last few months, each while protesting the Trump administration's immigration policies. And it wasn't just them. Other clergy have been arrested during similar protests.
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UNIDENTIFIED AGENT #1: Turn around. Turn around.
MICHAEL WOOLF: It's just evil what's happening here. It's torture. What they're doing is torture.
JENKINS: That's Reverend Michael Woolf speaking as he was pushed to the pavement and handcuffed while protesting outside of an ICE detention facility outside Chicago. He was one of seven religious leaders detained that day. Since January, faith leaders from everyday people to the pope have sparked one of the largest surges of faith-based organizing in recent history, and it's spreading. Across the country, religious leaders are rallying fellow faithful to what they insist is a righteous cause, namely challenging President Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda with a stream of sermons, statements, lawsuits and protests.
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WOOLF: And for me, I know which side I choose. I choose the gospel.
JENKINS: That's Reverend Woolf again, speaking the day after his arrest. The Baptist minister said the experience left him with bruises all over his body.
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WOOLF: It's just foolish to be called, like, a violent rioter by someone when you're with a clerical collar, and you're simply trying to express your First Amendment rights.
JENKINS: Woolf's arrest was part of a scheduled protest, but other religious pushback has happened spontaneously. Back in June, when apparent ICE agents chased someone into a church parking lot in Southern California, the pastor ran out and began filming the masked officers.
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TANYA LOPEZ: This is the property of the church. This is Downey Memorial Christian Church, and we are not OK with you being on our property.
JENKINS: Two weeks later, another Southern California pastor, Ara Torosian, confronted ICE agents in a neighborhood as they detained two members of his evangelical church.
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ARA TOROSIAN: Why you're taking him?
UNIDENTIFIED AGENT #2: Stay back (inaudible) feet.
UNIDENTIFIED AGENT #3: If you're recording, stay back a couple feet (ph).
TOROSIAN: No, I want to know. I'm his pastor.
JENKINS: The pastor explained that he and his congregants were Iranian converts to Christianity. Moments later, one of the people being detained collapsed to the ground. In the video, she can be seen convulsing as agents stand over her. The pastor later said she was having a panic attack.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Screaming).
TOROSIAN: Why are you doing this? Why are you doing this? They came from persecution, from dictatorship. I'm from Iran. I'm from Iran. You're so cruel, so cruel.
JENKINS: DHS did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story. But in response to the protests earlier this year, the agency mocked its religious critics. A DHS statement referred to Reverend Black, the Presbyterian minister who was shot in the head with a pepper ball, as a pastor in air quotes. And when footage emerged of the protest in Chicago, where Reverend Woolf and other clergy were arrested, DHS posted a message on social media that referred to the faith-led demonstrators as violent rioters and imbecilic morons who need to, quote, "get a job."
When Religion News Service asked DHS about that protest last month, a spokesperson dismissed the criticism of faith leaders, calling it a, quote, "ridiculous line of questioning" and suggesting clergy should instead, quote, "condemn lawlessness and violence against our law enforcement." But faith-based pushback to Trump's mass deportation agenda isn't going away. Pope Leo has spoken out in support of the cause, and when border patrol agents arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina, last month, hundreds of people packed into the sanctuary of Amity Presbyterian Church for what they called an ICE watch training. The church's pastor, Reverend Megan Argabrite, said she has taken cues from faith leaders in other cities where immigration agents have shown up in force.
MEGAN ARGABRITE: I'm grateful that we here in Charlotte have been able to take the lessons that Chicago learned. What the church also does really well is to, you know, prick the conscience of the masses.
JENKINS: Dozens of faith groups have also signed on to lawsuits challenging the administration's immigration policies. And pastors and moms, rabbis and Catholic bishops now routinely accompany immigrants to ICE check-ins and immigration court. When DHS launched a new immigration enforcement campaign in New Orleans this month, a local Methodist congregation greeted federal agents with a message on its church sign. It quoted Jesus from the Book of Matthew, but it was addressed directly to ICE. It read - ICE, whatsoever you do to the least, you do unto me. For NPR News, I'm Jack Jenkins.
CHANG: This story was produced through a collaboration between NPR and Religion News Service. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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