USA (MNN) — As part of sweeping immigration reform, President Trump is weighing travel bans of ranging severity for 41 countries. This comes amidst widespread approval of Trump’s immigration policies and a majority opinion that America remains friendly to immigrants, specifically those of legal status.
How are changing policies affecting Green Card holders?
While most of Trump’s actions in the immigration arena have targeted illegal residents, the ubiquity of reform is now being felt by another group: green card holders, or lawful permanent residents. Travelers in this category are reporting longer point-of-entry interviews when returning to the US; and the recent arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder facing deportation for affiliation with Hamas, raises further concerns about potential for deportation.
The full White House immigration policy is outlined here.
How does this relate to ministry?
The flood of policy change could affect an overlooked subset of green card holders: those working in international ministry. Bruce Allen with FMI says many employees of Christian organizations in the US are operating on religious workers visas. For example, FMI employs a US-based Pakistani national who travels extensively for the ministry. Increased scrutiny could bog down FMI’s logistics.
“Providentially, our staff member when he returned to the US a few days ago after traveling in three countries visiting with many of FMI’s indigenous church planters overseas, he encountered no problems,” Allen says. “But it may be a concern moving forward, especially if these proposals and considerations do get passed.”
Allen knows of green card holders who have canceled overseas travel plans to avoid unwanted risks. But he says the real game changer for ministries won’t be policy concerning foreigners entering America.
“It’s that those countries on the list of 41 nations may likely take reciprocal action against US travelers.”
FMI supports projects and partnerships in three of the countries under travel ban consideration.
“And a fourth country on the list is one that has just invited us to help out in recent weeks, which would require travel to that country to set up leadership teams overseeing a ministry. So that could be even more challenging,” he says.
Even without travel restrictions, the nature of international work is logistically complex. Allen points out that the command to make disciples of all nations is not conditional on safety, comfort, or ease.
“We will continue to do ministry: trusting in God’s sovereignty, praying for the leaders of our nations, so that they will make wise and safe decisions that allow us to operate peacefully,” he says.
Vice President Vance and President Trump, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
How can we pray?
Please pray that ministries anticipating fallout from changing immigration policies will be of good courage, trusting God to open doors for continued international partnerships as He sees fit. Pray that the Trump administration would make wise decisions surrounding immigration and national security, and pray that the church will firmly root itself in the Word of God rather than national diplomacy.
Featured image courtesy of Pexels
