Hispanic Pentecostal leaders gathered near the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday to urge the Trump administration to extend Temporary Protected Status for El Salvador and to show greater leniency toward immigrant families facing detention and deportation. The gathering came as protections for roughly 170,000 Salvadorans approached a Sept. 9 deadline.
Pastors and bishops affiliated with the Confraternity of Pentecostal Entities of the Americas, or CEPA, spoke at a largely Spanish-language press conference at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill. The organization represents about 21,000 Pentecostal churches across 36 U.S. states and throughout the Americas, and speakers also highlighted cases involving Pentecostal pastors detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Bishop Ángel Marcial, a Church of God leader and CEPA president, said the gathering was not intended as a partisan political event but as a pastoral response “accompanied by prophetic voice that is necessary in these times.”
The scheduled end of TPS for El Salvador had placed the legal status and work authorization of about 170,000 Salvadorans in jeopardy. Advocacy groups also noted that many have U.S.-citizen children. Federal officials later said Salvadorans would retain TPS for the time being while the administration considered its next step.
Several speakers referred to a CEPA statement that acknowledges the biblical teaching in Romans 13 about submission to civil authorities while also arguing that Scripture “teaches that every legitimate authority has limits: a righteous ruler does not terrorize those who do good; judges must not pervert justice; and the cries of the oppressed reach the ears of God.”
The statement calls for an end to indiscriminate deportations and urges a pathway to legal status. It also asks that churches, schools and hospitals be protected from immigration enforcement and calls for “fundamental justice,” due process and “humane and accountable treatment in immigration detention centers.”
Bishop Jose Martinez Rincon of Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal, M.I., said through a translator that CEPA seeks “to motivate towards the security of our borders, that laws would be followed, and at the same time, that there would be compassion and dignity that is expressed in the Word of God toward the needy, toward the person that has been displaced.”
Jacqueline Fuentes also addressed the gathering on behalf of her father, Pastor Marco Antonio Fuentes Cruz of Iglesia de Dios Adulam in Indianapolis, who she said was detained in Indiana last month. She argued that immigrant families are deeply rooted in their communities and asked that detainees be allowed to return home.
“I want to first ask in the name of my family, and for those families who are also being affected by the current immigration policies here in the United States, to be let free from detention and to return to their communities. It's not just my family. There are millions of families who have U.S. citizen kids like me,” she said.
“As many churches, we represent the millions of people who don't have a voice. We are not political. We are a church who believes in the move of the Holy Spirit. Pastors are critical parts of our community. They bring safety and comfort in times of desperation and fear. It's a moment like this where our pastors should not be behind bars. They should be offering love and care and the hand of God to all immigrants [and] communities in this current situation,” she added.
Bishop Juan Garcia, director of Hispanic ministries for the Church of God, called on the administration to take “immediate action” to restore TPS for Haiti and extend protections for Salvadorans. He requested a minimum two-year extension “so that families can duly prepare themselves.”
“We're asking for protection for those families from unnecessary separation. We are asking that there would be an end to those indiscriminate detentions and deportations. We ask that our churches be protected; our schools, hospitals and essential spaces for the communities that we represent,” he said.
