LOS ANGELES – In recent weeks, Pastor Caleb Crainer began developing a plan in the event that immigration enforcement agents show up at the door of his congregation, a pressing concern after the Trump administration rescinded long-standing guidance advising them to avoid houses of worship.
"So we have three of these pink binders that are around the church," he says, pulling one off a shelf behind his secretary's desk and leafing through the pages.
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.
Other pink binders are located at the entrance to the sanctuary itself as well as in the fellowship hall, all places anyone is welcome to enter St. Andrew's Lutheran Church, in west Los Angeles.
Crainer created these folders in consultation with other clergy, lawyers and immigrant rights groups. He's also done role-play exercises with his congregation to help them practice their responses. So, if immigration agents show up, church staff, volunteer ushers, greeters or any church member will know what to do.
Scores of congregations around Los Angeles have taken similar measures as the federal government has been focusing on the region with regards to immigration enforcement.
While developing the plan, Crainer and his congregation have learned a lot about the law. "As a church, you need to know where your public spaces are and where your private spaces are," he says. "Because when ICE shows, they can go into any public space. But they are precluded from going into any private space without a warrant."
A public space in a house of worship is any place a visitor might be allowed to go, such as the sanctuary itself where liturgies take place or the fellowship hall where coffee and doughnuts are served after worship. Private spaces include areas such as the pastor's office or the sacristy, a room where ritual objects are stored.
Crainer says his congregation has also distributed "know your rights" brochures in English and Spanish to members, as well as houses in the surrounding neighborhood, and created a policy of not keeping records of any church member's immigration status.
People of faith stand in solidarity with the most vulnerable
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.
"We started out right after the election doing a whole lot of 'know your rights' training, training with congregations on sanctuary, rapid response training," says Jennifer Gutierrez, executive director of the advocacy group Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice. "That's still ongoing."
Gutierrez says things have also evolved since early June, when immigration agents began detaining more and more people in the region.
"We've been spending a lot of time in the streets," she says. "A number of rabbis or other clergy in their collars are out at actions trying to be a peaceful presence, but also just trying to show the community that we stand with them."
Her group also attends court hearings and holds a weekly vigil at the federal building in downtown L.A..
This past week, concerns over immigration arrests became so acute in neighboring San Bernardino County that the Catholic bishop of that diocese gave a special dispensation from attending mass to anyone too afraid to go to church because they feared being detained.
Gutierrez says some congregations with large immigrant populations have gone online, like they did during the pandemic, so that people who fear being seized by immigration agents don't have to travel to church. And she knows of some ministers bringing communion to their parishioners rather than asking people to risk showing up at worship services where they might encounter law enforcement.
For Pastor Caleb Crainer of St. Andrew's Lutheran Church, all this reminds him of the early church when the faithful were hunted down and persecuted by the Roman Empire. During that time, people looked to the biblical stories of how communities cared for each other and sought solace in the life of Jesus as portrayed in the New Testament.
"Jesus was a vulnerable person who created a lot of enemies among the rich and powerful," he says. "And he was arrested. He was disappeared in the middle of the night and put through a sham trial and publicly executed. That's the core of our Christian story."
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