Hutchcraft Ministries’ Doug Hutchcraft says, “It’s a big deal because most people know someone [who] is affected by this.”

The Department of Homeland Security is now implementing body cameras following the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens last month by federal agents. Tensions escalated quickly from local resistance to statewide protests and interference with law enforcement after the shootings.

Meanwhile, anti-ICE protests continue. Residents in south Minneapolis have set up a blockade to prevent agents from entering their neighborhood.

Graffiti on the window of a now-closed Pizza Shark pizza shop on Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis on January 19, 2026.
(Chad Davis, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

“There’s so much in the headlines that is making people anxious and angry,” Hutchcraft says.

“It seems like the loudest voices, when it comes to the immigration debate, are the most extreme ones.”

Focus on Jesus, not politics

Many Christians wonder how to enter the highly politicized conversation. Hutchcraft recommends the advice offered in Ecclesiastes 7:16 about avoiding extremes.

“You don’t have to fall for the lie that you’ve got to operate with one extreme or another,” he says.

“You can be Christ’s ambassador and believe that what the law says about things like immigration is important, while still feeling love and compassion towards someone who may not have gotten here legally from a different country.”

Instead of discussing political talking points, Hutchcraft encourages believers to look for Gospel opportunities.

“There are so many different ways – depending on what questions a person asks – to get into a conversation about Jesus from the immigration debate,” Hutchcraft says.

“Start with knowing God’s Word, and especially what His Word has to say about what’s going on in the news.”

Pray all the way

(Photo by Moe Magners/Pexels)

Ask the Lord to help you be His representative when discussing current events. For more insight, listen to Hutchcraft Ministries’ latest “Go MAD” podcast.

“When you’re a follower of Jesus, people are listening to what you have to say, what you think about these things,” Hutchcraft says.

Pray the “three open” prayer as you enter into dialogue. “Lord, open their heart, open a door, open my mouth,” Hutchcraft says.

“This is what we’re praying for: someone who we want to have a relationship with Jesus. Those doors (opportunities) are everywhere.”

Header image depicts Commander of Operations at Large Gregory Bovino and Acting Associate Director Marcos Charles of ICE-ERO give a press conference at Minneapolis, Minn., Jan 25, 2026. (CBP Photography, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

“This is an interesting time that we are living, because we know at the moment that the federal government is on a mission of doing something. I will not judge if that is just or not. That is not for me to say if it is right or wrong,” says Jehiel Ortiz, a missionary with Trans World Radio (TWR).

Ortiz works to reach Spanish speakers in the U.S. for Christ. He has noticed troubling divisions between believers over immigration enforcement that he thinks are not proper.

Stock photo courtesy of Priscilla Du Preez via Unsplash.

“We don’t need to say if we are in favor of the government or against the government. That is not a position of the church,” he says. “The position of the church is how [to find] the Kingdom values I can express and align with.” 

Ortiz says God calls His people to honor the laws of the land in which they live. That means an illegal immigrant status is not acceptable. At the same time, Ortiz points to the two greatest commandments that Jesus named in Matthew 22: to love God with all that we are, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. To Ortiz, that means first caring for a person’s soul, then their legal status. 

“The first thing is, ‘Do you know Christ?’ If that is not the case, if people don’t know Christ, then you preach them the gospel,” he says. 

After that, love might look like seeking to understand the person’s story. What brought them to a new country? Are they stuck somewhere in the legal process? How do they need someone to come alongside them? 

“Maybe a member of the church is a lawyer who can help [them] out. There are many ways that we can do that, but the idea is to say, ‘How can we respond with grace in a difficult situation?’” says Ortiz. “There are people who are facing situations that we need to help them in some way to [face], with one specific goal: that they can see the love of God.”

Radio Trans Mundial is TWR’s Spanish ministry in the United States. (Photo, caption courtesy of TWR)

In whatever country a Christian calls home, it’s crucial to think carefully and seek a biblical perspective on current events.

“The only way that you can do that is to spend time with God. Go to God first, and then go outside to share what God has put in your heart,” says Ortiz. “We need to pray, ‘God, how can we be the light and the salt that this society is needing?’” 

For Spanish-speakers searching for biblical conversations on the experience of immigrants, check out Esperanza en el Camino (Hope Along the Way), created by the team at RTM USA, TWR’s Spanish-language ministry. The show points listeners to hope in Christ and practical ways the gospel touches daily life. 

Header image is a stock photo courtesy of Jamaica Cabahug via Unsplash. 

According to the Department of Justice, undocumented immigrants are one of the fastest-growing segments of the federal prison population. From 2000 to 2011, the number of federal prisoners sentenced for immigration crimes increased by 70%.

Crossroad Bible Institute has responded to the need to reach Spanish speakers in the United States. Since 2002, CBI has provided the discipleship courses Grandes Verdades de la Biblia and Resumen de la Biblia in Spanish in order to meet the increasing need for a Bible study program in that language.

President of Crossroad Bible Institute David Schuringa says, "Because of the increase of incarceration of undocumented immigrants, they've needed more places to house them; so now they're being placed into the United States prison system."

Furthermore, unlike American citizens, undocumented immigrants are not entitled to court-appointed lawyers, and many cannot afford private representation. Unrepresented immigrants are up to eight times more likely to be deported than those who have counsel. According to Schuringa, "They feel pretty isolated, pretty useless, pretty powerless, and so we come to them with the power of Christ and give them hope. And we provide them with the tools they need to bring hope to their families when they return."

How has that affected CBI's program? Schuinga says, "The demand for the program has just been increasing exponentially–not only here in the United States, but also throughout Latin America."

CBI's Spanish program currently serves 3000 students, about half of whom are detained for immigration offenses. "It's encouraging to see CBI's concern for undocumented immigrants," says Nicolette Chambery, CBI's advocacy coordinator. "This underrepresented demographic is in need of a voice to speak out on its behalf."

CBI has stayed on the forefront of this developing issue and continues to support a biblical approach toward aliens and strangers. Without endorsing specific immigration policies, CBI advocates for the fair and kind treatment of aliens without lawful immigration status (Ex. 22:21; Deut. 1:16; Heb. 13:2).

Moreover, CBI is partnering with like-minded organizations to ensure that all human beings are treated with dignity and that their basic human rights are protected. "Christians are called to show the same grace to foreigners that God in Christ has shown us," says CBI president Dr. David Schuringa, "so that all may come to know the Gospel and be accepted into the family of faith."

CBI is a nonprofit prison ministry with over 45,000 students studying through satellite campuses on six continents. The program is provided at no cost to prisoners and their families.