Faith groups in Louisiana are mobilizing along multiple fronts in response to an ongoing surge in federal immigration actions targeting New Orleans.
Clergy and congregations from across the religious spectrum are organizing protests and know-your-rights training for citizens as more people share video recordings of Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel operating in their communities.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the calling and actions inspired by the urgency of the moment, said Leigh Rachal, executive director of the Louisiana Interchurch Conference, a coalition of denominational and other faith groups such as the African American Episcopal, United Methodist, Evangelical Lutheran and Episcopal churches in addition to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the National Baptist Convention of America.
Leigh Rachal
“Across traditions, our sacred Scriptures teach us that our role is to welcome strangers and uphold the dignity of every single person. It is important in these times to lift that collective voice and to remind one another of the importance of how we treat one another and that the image of the divine is in each of us,” said Rachal, who also serves as a commissioned pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
The motivation to organize also has an emotional edge for clergy as they learn of masked agents swooping into New Orleans with the brutality ICE has demonstrated in Chicago, Los Angeles, Charlotte and the Triangle region of North Carolina.
“It makes me sick to my stomach. It makes me angry, to be honest,” said Marc Boswell, senior pastor at St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, about the ongoing action dubbed by authorities as “Operation Catahoula Crunch.”
Boswell said he has friends from Latin America in the country legally but nevertheless afraid of leaving their homes. In one highly publicized account, a New Orleans resident born in the U.S. was chased by ICE agents until she reached the safety of her home.
“That’s the kind of thing that is happening here. They are doing here what they do elsewhere, like going to Lowe’s and Home Deport picking up day laborers or folks in the construction industry.”
Boswell said he fears for the safety of Honduran, Palestinian, Vietnamese and other refugees who may be targeted for deportation despite being legally resettled in the region. The Trump administration has signaled its intention to re-interview more than 200,000 refugees who entered the nation legally during Joe Biden’s presidency.
“They go back a long way in our city and I’m nervous for them in this climate,” Boswell said.
A man waving a US flag and holding a Bible protests against ICE and Customs and Border Protection near the parking lot of Burlington Coat Factory in Kenner, a suburb of New Orleans, Louisiana, on November 13, 2025. (Photo by Matthew Hatcher / AFP via Getty Images)
St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church isn’t sitting by as ICE and Border Patrol agents ramp up operations in the city, the pastor added. He is part of Indivisible Nola, the group that organized the city’s No Kings protests and has established text chains to signal the presence of immigration agents that began arriving in early December.
“At the church, some local immigration advocacy groups we partnered with in the past have come back to us wanting space to hold trainings. Union Migrante held a training session on knowing your rights about filming ICE or Border Patrol agents when you see them.”
Marc Boswell
Together with the Center for Faith and Action it launched in 2019, the church hosted an interfaith prayer vigil for immigrants Dec. 4 featuring 18 clergy and more than 100 participants.
“At the service, there was one noticeable absence in the room: members of the immigrant community at the center of those prayers,” WDSU 6 reported.
“‘We’re not seeing our immigrant siblings here tonight because this could have been an opportunity for ICE to come and say, ‘Oh, they’re here,’ and that is the last thing we would want,’” said Katie Jacob, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church. “‘This is not just about prayer, it’s about action.’”
St. Charles Avenue Baptist recently encouraged its contracted custodial workers to stay home as the detention sweeps continue. “We told them please be safe and some clergy friends they have are working to get them groceries.”
Meanwhile, the Catholic Church is organizing efforts for Hispanics in that community and in some cases has started livestreaming worship services for immigrants afraid to go to church.
Gregory Michael Aymond, archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans, and Bishop Michael Gerard Luca of the Diocese of Baton Rouge recently suspended the requirement to attend mass for immigrants afraid to go to church.
The Louisiana Interchurch Conference has been busy in other ways, as well, Rachal said. It is coordinating food donations and utilities payments for immigrants stranded at home and is raising funds to pay the pastors of immigrant churches with declining attendance and giving.
Archbishop Gregory Michael Aymond
The organization also has organized a public message objecting to the federal action known for its strong-arm tactics and racial profiling.
“In the midst of recent immigration enforcement actions, our communities are experiencing a climate of fear. We cannot remain silent and look away when families, congregations, and neighborhoods are unsettled and impacted by these actions,” according to the statement released Dec. 16.
The document affirms the need and right of government to enforce immigration laws but urges such actions should be carried out with transparency and respect for human dignity.
“We are troubled when houses of worship, schools, hospitals, shelters and other spaces that serve as anchors of community life are perceived as unsafe,” it says. “We are concerned when individuals are detained without clear information or access to support. We lament rhetoric that reduces human beings to categories rather than honoring their inherent worth.”
The moment requires clergy and congregations to do more than speak against the administration’s mass deportation campaign, Rachal added. “We are allying because we have to pray with our hands and our feet. We have to work collectively as a public witness to the importance of caring for one another.”
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