Faced with deportations of their church members, some Latino pastors who voted for Donald Trump in 2024 now regret their choice, according to Agustin Quiles.
The president and founder of Mission Talk, an organization that mobilizes Latino evangelicals to shape public policy and transform communities, was the opening keynote speaker at the Compassion and Justice Conference sponsored by FaithWorks Feb. 20-21 in Austin, Texas.
He previously served as director of mobilization and the Florida representative for the Evangelical Immigration Table and National Immigration Forum and was national director for Hispanic Partnerships at Wycliffe USA. Mission Talk equips Latino church leaders to address issues of immigration, racial equality, criminal justice reform, voting rights,
Quiles, who is Pentecostal, told the story of a pastor who called begging for his help because his “right-hand person” at the church had been deported by the Trump administration.
Quiles told him, “I don’t think there’s anything you can do at this point.” To which the pastor replied, “Why not?”
“You know who I voted for,” the pastor replied.
Quiles asked the pastor who he voted for in the presidential election. “You know who I voted for,” the pastor replied.
“I said, ‘I know. Why did you do it?”
The pastor gave a vague answer about “freedom of religion” and concern about transgender people.
“I said, ‘Pastor, I understand you have some strong opinions. Do you mind me asking a question?”
“Sure,” the pastor replied.
Quiles then offered a hypothetical. What if an ICE agent came to the pastor’s door right then and offered to bring back his deported church members if the pastor would change his vote in the 2024 presidential election. Would the pastor do that?
“Yes,” the pastor replied with sorrow.
“What I was trying to get at was his values about family. … When I approach my community to engage in justice work, … they have some values I know when it comes to the family.”
Yet with Trump, these Pentecostal Latino pastors “vote Republican even against their own interest, against their own immigrants,” he said. “Their churches are filled with immigrants and then to make that decision. The question is, ‘Why would they do that?’”
He wonders: “How can you make a decision politically the way they did knowing that this thing was coming?”