Headlining a section of its story “people of faith stand in solidarity with the most vulnerable,” National Public Radio (NPR) reported Sunday that “scores of congregations” around Los Angeles are instituting measures to complicate immigration enforcement on their grounds.
According to the taxpayer-funded news operation, “religious leaders in Los Angeles didn’t wait for President Trump’s return to office in January to take action. Given the tone and rhetoric of the 2024 presidential campaign, they began their efforts months earlier.”
NPR did not name any of the other churches, however.
Instead, the report focused on St. Andrews Lutheran Church in west Los Angeles, nestled in a neighborhood near the junction of I-405 and I-10 just east of Santa Monica.
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There, NPR reported, Pastor Caleb Crainer has a plan should Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrive at his church.
“So we have three of these pink binders that are around the church,” the pastor told the network, describing what happens next:
Crainer points out the step-by-step response to people presenting themselves as immigration officers as he flips through the pages, which include examples of what official court orders should look like as well as “know your rights” materials and important phone numbers for church leaders and advocacy groups.
The minister says he’s been studying the law since the Trump administration changed the policy that ICE should avoid churches while enforcing immigration statutes.
“As a church, you need to know where your public spaces are and where your private spaces are,” Crainer said. “Because when ICE shows, they can go into any public space. But they are precluded from going into any private space without a warrant.”
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Jennifer Gutierrez, executive director of the advocacy group Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, told the news outlet her organization has been conducting “rapid response” training with congregations in Southern California.
Her group has also been involved in anti-ICE vigils and demonstrations but is “trying to be a peaceful presence.”
As Breitbart News reported last week, California as a sanctuary state ranked worst in the country for releasing more than 13,000 illegal aliens charged with crimes from its jails and prisons without alerting ICE.
Criminal aliens are the focus of ICE activity, the Trump administration has said.
That differentiation between migrants with or without criminal records or charges was not addressed in the NPR story.
Instead, it reported that ICE enforcement “reminded Pastor Crainer” of the early Christian church “when the faithful were hunted down and persecuted by the Roman Empire.”
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles-based crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
