Immigrant Mormons Asked for Help. Here’s What The Church Said.

[00:00:04] On November 12, 2025, the U.S. Catholic bishops approved a message on immigration by a vote of 216 to 5. It included this sentence, quote, We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people, end quote. The same message recognized a country's responsibility to regulate its borders. The bishops held both positions in the same document.

[00:00:28] And as we talked about a few weeks ago, in Idaho this fall, the Mormon Church sent a letter to its 1,300 congregations there opposing an abortion ballot measure. A few weeks later, it gave $1 million to the campaign against it. The church knows how to take a moral position into public life. Immigrant members have been asking it to bring that same urgency to what's happening to their families.

[00:01:25] If you follow now... The church first presidency worked differently. Their statements don't all govern local congregations in the same way. But the comparison of how each has approached its messaging on immigration of late is worth taking a gander at. The immediate reason to revisit this is an October 13, 2026 release from the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference.

[00:01:46] Bishop Brendan Cahill of the National Association of Evangelicals President Walter Kim called for compassionate immigration reform and criticized the disruption of families and communities through indiscriminate, aggressive enforcement. They co-chair an evangelical Catholic dialogue on immigration. Okay, as we walk through this statement and others, we're going to keep three things apart. Immigration enforcement, refugee resettlement and religious membership.

[00:02:15] A decision about admitting refugees is different from a decision about helping a family already living here and letting someone into a temple doesn't answer what help they can get when they're afraid to leave the house. Afraid to leave the house. That's where we're going to start. Before any of the statements with the people who have been waiting on one. In April, the Salt Lake Tribune interviewed 10 Latino and Latina Mormons about what they wanted from their church. One of them, JP, was 16.

[00:02:41] He and his dad were waiting to hear whether the courts would grant their asylum application and wish the church leaders would speak up for people in their position. A mom in Utah County who asked not to be identified because she's literally afraid for her family's physical safety has told her son to stop wearing his Mexico soccer jersey to school. And I get it. I do too. And the wish lists that they offered were really specific. They asked for help paying for housing and medical care.

[00:03:09] Permission to work at the church's own bishop's storehouses. Leaders defending immigrants in public. Meeting houses where someone could find sanctuary. All 10 said the church needs to do more. A teenager waiting on an asylum ruling. And a mother afraid of what a national jersey might invite. Families who need help with rent. Telling every one of them to obey the law answers none of those issues. It doesn't. So why hasn't the church done more?

[00:03:37] Laura Ortega Ruiz, a convert from Mexico who lives in Provo, gave the Tribune a one-sentence answer. She said, quote, They're scared of losing Republican members, end of quote. Most of the 10 told the Tribune the same thing. A majority of Latter-day Saints in the U.S. have voted for Trump every time his name has been on the ballot. So what did the church say to them? On January 30th, 2025, it published three immigration principles. Obey the law.

[00:04:05] Follow Jesus by loving all of God's children as neighbors. And provide basic food and clothing within its capacity, regardless of immigration status. It added that it was particularly concerned about keeping families together. The statement also said the church's general counsel was working on guidelines to help local leaders comply with federal immigration law. Just the richness of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints telling people to obey the law. Right?

[00:04:35] The law means nothing to the church when they want to disregard it. They've said, nuh-uh. Doesn't mean anything compared to God's law. Food and clothing, those matter. And giving them, regardless of immigration status, makes a difference to the people who receive them. But look at what keeping a family together depends on. I mean, rent, transportation, a way to get to work, a means of work, a lawyer, a paycheck. A concern for keeping families together.

[00:05:05] Mere concern does not tell a bishop what he is to do about any of those material issues. The DDL guidance was a separate document from the public policy, as you can imagine. Deseret News reported that it allowed temporary fast-offering assistance for essentials, including food, clothing and medical care, regardless of immigration status. Which nobody should be inquiring about.

[00:05:29] For somebody who leaders believed was undocumented and not authorized to work, it called for avoiding or limiting housing assistance. No transportation outside the local community and no employment referrals. But that's based on their belief. And their belief is based on what? Their own judgments, biases, assumptions, ignorance. It also told leaders. Guess so. Yeah. It also told leaders not to give legal advice, which I fully agree with.

[00:05:57] Don't do that because you're probably not qualified. Testify in proceedings. The church doesn't want, bishop takes the stand in a headline. Or avoid sponsoring immigration efforts. They could point families to community resources on immigration issues or preparing for a possible separation. And having been a school counselor in a community with a lot of undocumented families,

[00:06:21] where the day-to-day reality of the stress and anxiety that this brings to everybody involved is so wild. And it's like, oh, let's help you find resources to prepare for the fact that your family is about to be torn apart. But church buildings and resources were not to be used to shield anyone from law enforcement. Now, set all of this church guidance beside the other two things we've heard. The members asked for help with housing, help finding work and a place of sanctuary.

[00:06:50] But the guidance says avoid or limit the housing help, no job referrals, no shielding. And the public statement worries about keeping families together. The guidance tells bishops they can point families to help preparing to be separated. Exactly. Yeah. It's so doom deaf, right? The church says it wrote these lines to stay inside federal law. And again, the church historically cares a great deal about federal law. Don't you know?

[00:07:18] They have a lot of respect for the law historically. So a bishop reading these guidelines gets a clear rule that the family across the desk or in his office is to get limited help with rent, no help with finding a job if you believe they might be undocumented and no refuge in a building. Yeah. And notice what the guidance doesn't cover. As reported, none of it addresses what a bishop can say from the pulpit.

[00:07:43] Telling a ward that mocking immigrants, brushing off their fear or cheering on family separation has no place in a Christian congregation that and that takes no lawyer and no policy change. The church has also said in a previous statement posted in June 2011 that undocumented status, quote, should not by itself prevent an otherwise worthy church member from entering the temple, end quote, or from being ordained to the priesthood. So you get your priorities right.

[00:08:12] No food or rent for you, but you get yourself to the temple and pay your tithing. Bishops get to make that call, the statement says, and members should avoid judging one another. Look, from the top, it says, just stop judging. Don't judge. Right. So picture a member with a temple recommend ordained to the priesthood in good standing by every measure the church uses. And his bishop believes he's undocumented and he can't legally work, which means the guidance

[00:08:41] says to avoid or live in help with his rent. The church has no question about whether he belongs in the church. The question is what that belonging gets him. Well, he might be a queer immigrant and then he doesn't belong at all. And then he doesn't belong at all. You're right. It's like, let's get our parameters straight. The church has made this kind of argument before regarding that statement that they made before in June 2011.

[00:09:07] It also said that any state law with only enforcement provisions was likely to fall short of its moral standard of treating everybody as children of God. It supported letting undocumented immigrants square themselves with the law and keep working without that necessarily leading to citizenship. I mean, do they not even get immigration? There's no path to citizenship for people. The idea that you just do it legally, it's like, there is no way. There's no path to citizenship.

[00:09:36] Like, it's so ignorant to not take into context the picture of what created the conditions that people are leaving. Who created the conditions that people are leaving? I don't know. I'm just so tired of hearing people say, my family came to this country legally. And it's like, did they? Because there weren't any immigration laws. So they couldn't. They just came. Right. They just came. And they just came and took over. That someone else was living on. So it wasn't legal. Anyway, that's my two cents. Yeah, I agree with your two cents.

[00:10:03] So the church has judged what a law should do, not just how to obey it. Members asking leaders to do that again are asking them to follow through on their own argument. The bishop's November message named what worried them. Fear around profiling and enforcement, detention conditions, access to pastoral care and family separation. They backed immigration reform and orderly borders. And they said exactly what they opposed.

[00:10:30] A church can say a government has the right to regulate its borders and still point at a practice and say, not that. In Utah, Catholic Community Services has immigration offices in Salt Lake City and Ogden. Its staff file applications, help clients apply to reunite with their families and represent migrant youth and families who are in the process of removal proceedings. A bishop isn't a lawyer and obviously he should not play one. The family that wants legal help in the Mormon church gets pointed to community organizations

[00:10:58] and the Catholic church is like, hey, we've got those community organizations right here for you. But I think what the difference is, is what that young person in the Tribune said, Laura Ortiz. She said, the church doesn't want to lose its Republican members. But what are the odds of that? Clearly, they're not going anywhere. The church could do anything and they're not going to. But they're so loyal and dedicated to the church. I don't think the church is at any risk of losing those folk. So it means there's actually another motivation, right? It's like even more nefarious, in my opinion.

[00:11:28] I don't think they're worried about losing those diehards. They never will. Well, and what's crazy is the church knows how to step up when it comes to policy and issues that they care about, right? As we mentioned, in September, the U.S. Central Area president sent that letter to all of the Idaho congregations and then they gave a million dollars in opposition to the abortion rights ballot measure. So they will use their voice where they think it counts.

[00:11:56] And the church has always explained while it stays neutral on candidates, it actively addresses ballot initiatives that it believes carry significant moral consequences. The problem here is immigration hasn't made that list of things the church cares about. In April, the Tribune reported that top leaders hadn't issued a public statement on immigration since January 2025, even as reports of family separations kept growing, including among the church's own members.

[00:12:26] Yeah, right. And maybe that's the difference that the Catholic church cares more about. It's immigrant members. And the well-being of everyone. Yeah, they're members who are coming from Spanish-speaking countries or, I mean, I don't know. It's just very interesting. It's curious who the church cares about. A ballot measure in Idaho gets a letter from the pulpit and a million dollars. Charlie Kirk's assassination gets a public statement.

[00:12:53] Mass deportation gets, hey, bishops, here's what you can't do. Here's how you can't help. Yeah, insane. The Episcopal Church offered a different example in May 2025. According to the Episcopal News Service, presiding bishop Sean Rowe announced that its migration ministry would end its federal refugee resettlement agreements at the close of the fiscal year. He objected to the preferential treatment for help for white African ears while broader refugee

[00:13:23] programs were being suspended. And Rowe tied the decision to the church's commitment to racial justice. It's ties to the Anglican Church of South Africa and Jesus's command to care for the poor and the vulnerable. Now, a church looked at a government program, named its gospel reason and said, yeah, not on those terms. Not that way. The Mormon guidance has a no in it. Also, the Episcopal Church's no went to the government.

[00:13:49] The no in the Mormon church's guidance goes to the family at the bishop's door. Not to be too dramatic, but that's the reality. That is the reality. At their June annual meeting, Southern Baptist messengers adopted an immigration resolution that supports humane enforcement and due process, including deportation of people the government duly prioritizes. It rejects amnesty as forgiveness of legal violations without accountability.

[00:14:15] It also rejects ethnic hostility and affirms human dignity regardless of immigration status. The warmest sentence in each of these documents sounds similar, but the provisions that follow don't. So hold each church to its own words and actions. The Baptists say due process. What do they say when due process is denied? Well, the Catholic bishops say dignity and they named profiling and detention conditions.

[00:14:43] The Mormon church says, love your neighbor and keep families together. Well, there was a man called Jesus and he said in Matthew 25, I was a stranger and he took me in. So let's see how the guidance holds up to that. Food and clothing. Yes. A place to live. A ride. Maybe a job. No, no. Avoid that. Limit that. Ortega Ruiz, who you cited at the beginning, Jess, from the Tribune article and her mention

[00:15:13] of Republican members. Pew Research Data gives us a look at the Pews, no pun intended. In its religious landscape study conducted from July 2023 to March 2024, 38% of Mormon adults called a growing immigration population a change for the better. 38% called it a change for the worse and 22% said it made little difference. So split down the middle. A leader looking at those numbers doesn't see a membership waiting to be led in one direction. But look at Idaho.

[00:15:41] The Tribune describes the LDS community there as split on Prop 1, that abortion measure. Also, the church went in any way with a letter from the pulpit and a million dollars donation. Yeah. So a divided membership doesn't stop the church from speaking when it decides the stakes are moral. The question is why it hasn't decided that here. The Mormon church's political neutrality policy rejects endorsing parties and candidates, as I mentioned.

[00:16:07] It also reserves the right to address issues it considers morally significant or directly relevant to its mission, teachings, or operations. That's the room it used in Idaho. And it has used that room on immigration. As we mentioned in June 2011, the church said the bedrock moral issue is how we treat each other as children of God. It warned that the history of mass expulsion should give pause, particularly when a group comes mostly from one heritage.

[00:16:37] The church does offer some help, obviously. We know that. But the people who talk to the Tribune want something that private aid can't give them. They want leaders who defend immigrants in public. And they want pushback on the hostility that they face in their communities. Yeah. And members have asked the church for this before. When Arizona passed Senate Bill 1070 in 2010, Latino Mormons in the state wondered why

[00:17:04] a church so focused on the family wouldn't condemn a law that threatened their families. Two years earlier, the church had gone deep into California politics over Proposition 8, under the banner of protecting the family. 16 years later, it's the same question. In April, JP told the Tribune that if the church leader said something, it would have an impact on government. And in Idaho this fall, the church acted as though its voice carries that kind of weight.

[00:17:31] As of April, the church hadn't used that voice for JP or anyone else. Double standards. One church, multiple standards. That is all we have for you today. We sure appreciate you listening. We do. We're also grateful for your support, whether it's through commenting and subscribing or via any of the ways we set up to help you keep the show going. You can find links to all of them in the show notes. We'll be back on Wednesday with the new episode of What Do You Know Wednesday? Until then, Hannah, I'm so sorry for what I said when I was Mormon.

[00:18:01] Guess what? I'm sorry for what I said when I was Mormon too. What do you know today? You're on Wednesday, the next day. Good morning. White House. Hi.