About 80% of the 10 million illegal immigrants who could be at risk of deportation from the United States under the Trump administration are Christians, according to a new report published by a coalition of Christian advocacy groups.
The report, titled “One Part of the Body: The Potential Impact of Deportations on American Christian Families,” was released by the National Association of Evangelicals, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Department of Refugee and Migration Services, the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and World Relief.
The report analyzes immigrants who were vulnerable to deportation as of December 2024 without any changes in immigration law. It finds that four out of five “immigrants at risk of deportation” are Christians, with over 10 million Christian immigrants in the United States facing potential deportation at the end of 2024.
Additionally, the report states that around one in 12 Christians in the U.S. are “vulnerable to deportation or live with a family member who could be deported.” It notes, “nearly 7 million U.S.-citizen Christians live within the same household of those at risk for deportation.”
The tally includes immigrants living unlawfully in the U.S., as well as “categories of noncitizens who are lawfully present,” who could be at risk due to rescinded legal protections by the Trump administration. This group includes immigrants with temporary protected statuses, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, and asylum seekers whose claims are still being processed.
In March, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced that the federal government would revoke humanitarian parole for 532,000 individuals from four countries: Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
According to the report, Catholics make up a majority (61%) of immigrants vulnerable to deportation, followed by 13% who are Evangelicals and 7% who belong to other Christian groups. The remaining 19% are from “other religious groups” or have “no religious affiliation” (12%).
Catholics comprise 73% of DACA recipients, while 9% are Evangelicals and 8% have no religious affiliation. Among Temporary Protected Status holders, 54% are Catholics, 22% have no religious affiliation, 15% are Evangelicals, and 6% belong to other Christian groups.
The largest demographic among asylum seekers is Catholics, comprising 58%, followed by individuals with no religious affiliation at 15%, Evangelicals at 14%, other religious groups at 8%, and other Christian groups at 5%.
When assessing the percentage of Christian denominations that could be impacted by deportations, the report estimates that 8% of all Christians could be affected, along with 18% of Catholics, 6% of Evangelicals, and 3% of Christians from other groups.
The report specifically highlights examples of Christians who may face deportation and uses statistics from the “World Christian Database” alongside data from the 2023 American Community Survey and the Pew Research Center's “The Religious Composition of the World's Migrants.”
