clergy & faith leaderS’
toolbox for immigrant justice
- Start here
- Sacred Texts & Reflection
- Your Tradition
- Protect & Prepare
- Teach & Learn
- Advocate & Organize
- Vote & Civic Engagement
- St. Louis & Missouri
- Build This Together
- Before you rely on this
Many of our diverse traditions offer “good bones” for this work — the statements, positions and explainers of each denomination. Find yours here, so you are not arguing from your own opinion but from what your tradition’s leadership has already said.
Jewish
Signed by the rabbinic, congregational and cantorial bodies of all three major movements. This may be the single strongest ‘my movement already said this’ contemporary/recent document to hand a hesitant board.
This index page includes nearly 50 practical items, such as actual letters rabbis sent their congregations and a guide to hosting an immigration paperwork clinic.
Six pathways — values, education, ritual, philanthropy, advocacy, volunteering. HIAS will consult with your congregation to build a plan.
Tools and support for building a team in your congregation; requires 5–10 adults, a six-month commitment, background checks and training, and at least $1,000 raised per newcomer. Note: this may require a yes/no board decision.
Reform movement resolutions, a social media toolkit, and live action alerts including sensitive-location protection.
For when concern about antisemitism is invoked to justify harming immigrants. Read this before you preach if you expect pushback from inside your own community.
Roman Catholic
Primary source text from November 2025 that may be worth reading verbatim from the pulpit. For instance: “To our immigrant brothers and sisters, we stand with you in your suffering… You are not alone!”
The foundational joint US/Mexican bishops’ pastoral letter. Also available in Spanish. Works as an adult formation text.
Hand this toolkit, developed by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC), to your Parish Council, immigration justice committee or other lay leaders as the parish’s starter plan.
Learn / Engage / Take Action, plus ‘You Are Not Alone,’ a pastoral accompaniment initiative. A robust package of articles, tools, and actionable items designed for Catholic parishes by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ immigration justice campaign.
A one-click commitment, plus Cabrini and Juan Diego prayer cards in English and Spanish. Also includes “next steps” resources to implement & put your pledge into practice.
Baptist
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) is a plaintiff in litigation that produced a preliminary injunction protecting houses of worship from ICE enforcement, and they built a full bilingual congregational toolkit around it. It is denominationally neutral in substance, free, in English and Spanish, and it answers the question clergy new to this work actually ask first: what do I do if agents come to my building? Every tradition should look at this, whatever your denomination (link below).
Note: this case is still pending. The preliminary (temporary) injunction was granted in February 2026, but the final decision from the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals is still pending.
This is the primary landing page for the comprehensive congregational toolkit developed by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF). It includes many of the links below, in one place, plus resources in Spanish.
Also developed by the CBF, this tool is ready to adopt as a written protocol before you need it. Even if your congregation may not be a likely target, your experience preparing as such can provide a rich opportunity for you to then accompany a more vulnerable congregation through a similar process, if needed.
The CBF resource explains in detail the implications of the preliminary injunction. Take it to your vestry, board, session, or deacons for adoption.
Train greeters and office staff on identifying potentially harmful questions and how to respond in order to keep all members of your community safe.
Print and post on your doors. Note: please confirm that your congregation is considered covered by the preliminary injunction before posting.
What the court order does and does not do.
A very practical checklist of actions, designed to be considered and applied individually as well as collectively.
Presbyterian (PCUSA)
One-stop ‘what has our denomination actually said’ index-style document produced by the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA). Recently updated and well-organized.
Central resource hub for PCUSA tools, links, and helpful contacts for immigration ministries.
Updated in May 2026 in preparation for the Advent season. Review this practical guide as you finalize your Advent plans this year.
February 2026. Solid study guide.
Host a film-and-discussion night; all tools and links provided by PCUSA.
Episcopal
Offers multiple avenues for connecting with other episcopal churches engaged in immigration justice efforts. Includes a resource list for Episcopal congregations as well.
Although somewhat dated, this is a comprehensive list of the policies and resolutions of The Episcopal Church by topic, including immigration.
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
Accompanying Migrants with Protection, Advocacy, Representation and Opportunities is the ELCA’s governing strategy and commitment around migration.
Global Refuge, formerly known as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, developed this curriculum that includes four video modules with discussion guides, plus a retreat and liturgy tools. This offers a structured year-long approach and could be applied outside of ELCA congregations.
Liturgy, vigil resources, a disinformation toolkit, and family/children materials.
Guidelines that emerged following the ELCA’s declaration as a universal sanctuary church in 2019.
This interactive resource list consolidates all materials of the ELCA related to AAMPARO. Multiple categories and sections are fruitful to explore.
United Methodist
Wallet-sized myth/fact card. Available to order or print for the whole congregation.
The denominational statement issued in January 2025. A foundational read for the most current UMC efforts; includes links to primary source texts and action items.
A comprehensive guide to supporting immigrants and migrants.
Includes links to 9 specific tools for activating UMC congregations.
United Church of Christ
A structured path to becoming a welcoming congregation.
Funding may be available for a congregation starting a migration justice ministry. Details, discernment and application information.
Contact: Megan Bergert, bergertm@ucc.org.
Evangelical
Sermon outlines, ‘Equipped to Act’ guide, family devotionals for preschool and elementary, and video trainings.
Produced by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), offers several videos that can be accessed online. Consider showing one episode at an upcoming board meeting.
Provides links to multiple evangelical statements, prayers, and tools; many resources available in multiple languages.
Muslim
Across ISNA, CAIR, MPAC, Emgage, Muslim Advocates, ICNA Relief and ING, exactly one resource is built for what clergy in this work actually need: MPAC’s Imam’s Guide. Consider starting there.
One of the best guides written specifically for imams and Khateebs; an excellent place to start - and only one page long.
Rights regardless of status, administrative vs. judicial warrants at the door, workplace enforcement, locating a detained relative, and a cut-out safety card. Print and stack in the lobby.
English, Arabic, Bengali, Bosnian, Farsi, Somali, Urdu, Dari, Pashto. Note honestly: these cover law enforcement, employment, travel and hate crimes — they are not ICE-specific. Use MPAC’s for ICE.
Where to point a congregant whose TPS is at risk, and a reliable source for accurate litigation status in a khutbah.
Includes a specific section on added precautions for non-citizen protesters. Essential before any congregant joins a public vigil or action.
Unitarian Universalist
Draws on Hebrew scripture, Christian teaching, Islamic texts and the UDHR — easy to quote at an interfaith gathering. Its tiered calls to action are a ready-made menu for a congregational conversation.
Side With Love, the UU Solidarity Initiative, and ‘Six Questions Congregations Need to Answer About Community Safety in This Moment.’
Long-term congregational accompaniment: housing, legal aid, family reunification. Deliberately flexible about what role your group plays.
A single service spotlighting one issue. An easy first step.
Two complete four-session curricula for children, split by grades 1–3 and 4–6, plus a family night. Free. An excellent turnkey children’s religious education resource that may be easily applicable across traditions.
Quaker
One of the best single curated link hubs in this entire toolbox, and one every tradition should read. Includes Columbia Law’s RFRA-immigration FAQ and World Relief’s guidance on ICE in places of worship.
Letter-to-the-editor talking points and reflection questions. A clergy person can write and place an op-ed from this in an afternoon.
Including Know Your Rights at immigration courts and for business owners. Excellent resources to make available in your building and community.
Free posters for a lobby or a lawn. Genuinely easy visible solidarity.
Black Church Traditions
Explicitly names immigrant rights as a priority area in their moral agenda. The “Higher Ground Moral Declaration” you’ll find on this website is one of the clearest Black-church-rooted immigration framing tools we’ve found. Consider utilizing the moral fusion frame to connect racial profiling and civil rights history to immigration enforcement.
While not explicitly about immigration, this resource is included for two primary purposes. First, this is a critical analysis of racism in US law and politics, which is essential to understand immigration policies today. Second, this guide offers a wonderful format, which could be adapted to teach additional, related topics.
Exists “to affirm and actualize the founding vision of the convention to be a radical community of Baptists committed to advancing human and civil rights.” While immigration is not yet on its list of priorities, the Commission might be an effective resource within the Progressive National Baptist Convention.
The Church of God in Christ (COGIC) joined multiple other faith communities in a joint statement against family separation.
A brand new resolution passed the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in June 2026, outlining the denomination’s history and current position on immigration in the US.
In 2021, the Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC) passed an important resolution on “Refugees, Migration, Asylum and Immigration.” Note: the link opens one PDF with multiple resolutions; please scroll to page 14.
Other Traditions
Clergy from the Church of the Nazarene, the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, and Ukrainian Catholic parishes will not find denominational immigration resources, because we could not find any. As such, we recommend going straight to the practical and ecumenical material: CBF’s ICE contingency plan (above), the ACLU of Missouri’s guidance for places of worship, and Global Refuge’s Faith Alliance (above). If we have missed an important resource, please let us know!
Designed as an FAQ-style document, this Missouri-specific tool offers clear guidance for any congregation..
Includes a policy tracker, worship guide and more.
