“People abducted from church parking lots. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shooting pastors while praying. Religious groups terrified to run their soup kitchens. Church pews empty as congregants stay home in fear.

This is the country we live in, the America that President Donald Trump has consistently claimed he would transform into a beacon for religious liberty.”

LRRP Director Liz Platt and Union Theological Seminary’s Reverend Frederick A. Davie have joined forces to deliver a powerful statement on how President Trump’s anti-immigrant crusade is undermining religious liberty in the United States.

In an op-ed published today in Salon, Platt and Davie describe the fear the administration has sown in faith communities—through surveillance, arrests on church property, and the abduction of congregants—and the ways these communities are fighting back through protest, preaching, advocacy, direct support, and religious liberty litigation.

These attacks on faith leaders and communities stand in direct opposition to President Trump’s repeated claims to defend religious freedom. As a result, an increasing number of lawsuits have been filed to protect the religious liberty rights of migrants, clergy, and houses of worship—including four suits challenging the revocation of the “sensitive locations” memo and a case filed last week by a Chicago pastor who was shot by ICE.

For more on the growing clashes between religious freedom and anti-immigrant enforcement, read LRRP’s sweeping report, published this summer. Platt will also be presenting the report’s findings in an upcoming Canopy Forum webinar on October 28, from 2:00–3:15 p.m Eastern Time.