US faith leaders supporting targeted immigrants brace for a tough year ahead

For faith leaders supporting and ministering to anxious immigrants across the United States, 2025 was fraught with challenges and setbacks. For many in these religious circles, the coming year could be worse.

The essence of their fears: President Donald Trump has become harsher with his contemptuous rhetoric and policy proposals, blaming immigrants for problems from crime to housing shortages and, in a social media post, demanding “REVERSE MIGRATION.”

Haitians who fled gang violence in their homeland, as well as Afghans allowed entry after assisting the U.S. in Afghanistan before the Taliban takeover, now fear that their refuge in America may end due to get-tough policy changes. Somali Americans, notably in Minnesota's Twin Cities, worry about their future after Trump referred to them as “garbage.”

After Trump's slurs, the chair of the Catholic bishops conference's subcommittee on racial justice urged public officials to refrain from dehumanizing language.

“Each child of God has value and dignity,” said the bishop of Austin, Texas, Daniel Garcia. “Language that denigrates a person or community based on his or her ethnicity or country of origin is incompatible with this truth.”

Here's a look at what lies ahead for these targeted immigrant communities, and the faith leaders supporting them.

In 2024, Trump falsely accused Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, of eating their neighbors' cats and dogs. It worsened fears about anti-immigrant sentiment in the mostly white, blue-collar city of about 59,000, where more than 15,000 Haitians live and work.

Thousands of them settled in Springfield in recent years under the Temporary Protected Status program.

Their prospects now seem dire. The TPS program, allowing many Haitians to remain legally in Springfield and elsewhere, expires in early February.

“It’s going to be an economic and humanitarian disaster,” said the Rev. Carl Ruby, pastor of Central Christian Church — one of several Springfield churches supporting the Haitians.

Ruby and Viles Dorsainvil, a leader of Springfield's Haitian community, traveled recently to Washington to seek help from members of Congress.

“Every single legislator we’ve talked to has said nothing is going to happen legislatively. Trump’s rhetoric keeps getting harsher,” Ruby said. “It just doesn’t feel like anything is going our way.”

Many Haitians fear for their lives if they return to their gang-plagued homeland.

Faith communities have come together to support immigrants in the face of Trump's crackdown, Ruby said.

“It’s increasing our resolve to oppose this,” he said. “There are more and more churches in Springfield saying we will provide sanctuary. … We will do whatever it takes to protect our members.”

Trump suspended the U.S. refugee program on the first day of his second term. Halting the program and its federal funding affected hundreds of faith-based organizations assisting refugees.

Among them was Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area, which serves the region around Washington, D.C., and lost 68% of its budget this year. The organization laid off two-thirds of its staff, shrinking from nearly 300 employees to 100.

Many of its employees and nearly two-thirds of its clients are Afghans. Many worked with the U.S. in Afghanistan and fled after the Taliban’s takeover from a U.S.-backed government in 2021.

The Trump administration announced new immigration restrictions after an Afghan national became the suspect in the Nov. 26 shooting of two National Guard members in Washington.

“It shook up our team. It was awful,” said Kristyn Peck, CEO of LSSNCA.

Peck said there is increased fear among Afghans on her staff and a false public narrative that Afghan immigrants are a threat.

“A whole group of people have now been targeted and blamed for this senseless act of violence,” she said.

She still finds reasons for hope.

“We continue to do the good work,” Peck said. “Even in challenging moments, we just continue to see people putting their faith into action.”

Volunteers have stepped up to provide services that employees no longer have funding to provide, including a program that helps Afghan women with English-language and job-skills training.

U.S.-based World Relief, a global Christian humanitarian organization overseen by the National Association of Evangelicals, has joined left-of-center religious groups decrying the new crackdown on Afghan refugees.

“When President Trump announces his intention to ‘permanently halt’ all migration from ‘Third World countries,’ he’s insulting the majority of the global Church,” declared World Relief CEO Myal Greene. “When his administration halts processing for all Afghans on account of the evil actions of one person, he risks abandoning tens of thousands of others who risked their lives alongside the U.S. military.”

In mid-December, imams and other leaders of Minnesota’s Somali community established a task force to tackle the fallout from major fraud scandals, a surge in immigration enforcement, and Trump’s contemptuous words toward the largest group of Somali refugees in the U.S.

“We’re not minimizing the crime, but we’re amplifying the successes,” said imam Yusuf Abdulle.

He directs the Islamic Association of North America, a network of more than three dozen mostly East African mosques. About half are in Minnesota, which, since the late 1990s, has been home to growing numbers of Somali refugees who are increasingly visible in local and U.S. politics.

“For unfortunate things like fraud or youth violence, every immigrant community has been through tough times,” Abdulle said. “For the number of years here, Somali is a very resilient, very successful community.”

Even though most Somalis in Minnesota are U.S. citizens or lawfully present, Abdulle said, many deserted local businesses and mosques when immigration enforcement surged.

The new task force includes more than two dozen faith and business leaders, as well as community organizers. Addressing their community's fears is the first challenge, followed by increased advocacy ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

“Every election year the rhetoric goes up. And so we want to push back against these hateful rhetorics, but also bring our community together,” said community leader Abdullahi Farah.

In mid-November, U.S. Catholic bishops voted overwhelmingly to issue a “special message” decrying developments causing fear and anxiety among immigrants. It marked the first time in 12 years that the bishops invoked this urgent way of speaking collectively.

“We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care,” said the message. “We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people. We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement.”

The bishops thanked priests, nuns and lay Catholics accompanying and assisting immigrants.

“We urge all people of goodwill to continue and expand such efforts,” the message said.

The presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Yehiel Curry, issued a similar pastoral message last month thanking ELCA congregations for supporting immigrants amid “aggressive and indiscriminate immigration enforcement.”

“The racial profiling and harm to our immigrant neighbors show no signs of diminishing, so we will heed God’s call to show up alongside these neighbors,” Curry wrote.

HIAS, an international Jewish nonprofit serving refugees and asylum-seekers, has condemned recent Trump administration moves.

“As a Jewish organization, we also know all too well what it means for an entire community to be targeted because of the actions of one person,” HIAS said.

“We will always stand in solidarity with people seeking the opportunity to rebuild their lives in safety, including those being targeted now by harmful policies and hateful rhetoric in the Afghan American and Somali American communities.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

FILE - A woman and a child hold hands as they walk down a street in the predominantly Somali neighborhood of Cedar-Riverside in Minneapolis on Thursday, May 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski, File)

FILE - Nawal Hirsi, right, part of the Twin Cities' Somali community, goes snow tubing with her family as part of a group promoting outdoors activities by Muslim women, at Elm Creek Park Reserve in Maple Grove, Minn., on Jan. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto, File)

FILE - A group of female Afghan refugees gather for a class on self-care and a post-Ramadan celebration at Catholic Charities Migrant and Refugee Services office in Fredericksburg, Va., on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski, File)

FILE - Jean-Michel Gisnel cries out while praying with other congregants at the First Haitian Evangelical Church of Springfield, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Springfield, Ohio. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao, File)

FILE - Parishioners pray during a Sunday Mass at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart Catholic church in Washington, Oct. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao, File)

FILE - Parishioners of Notre Dame d'Haiti process outside the Catholic church during a Lent faith event that reenacted the biblical story of the Red Sea passage March 29, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto, File)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates called for “restraint and wisdom” Tuesday after Saudi Arabia accused it of backing an offensive by separatists in Yemen, while disputing Riyadh’s allegations against it.

The UAE Foreign Ministry's statement followed Saudi Arabia launching airstrikes on Yemen’s port city of Mukalla, where the kingdom asserted that the UAE shipped armored vehicles and weapons.

The UAE denied shipping weapons but acknowledged the vehicle shipment. Abu Dhabi claimed it was for its own forces, without offering more details. The UAE broadly withdrew its forces years earlier in Yemen.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia bombed Yemen's port city of Mukalla on Tuesday after a weapons shipment from the United Arab Emirates arrived for separatist forces in the war-torn country, and starkly warned that it viewed Emirati actions as “extremely dangerous.”

The bombing followed days of tensions over the advance of the separatist forces known as the Southern Transitional Council, which is backed by the Emirates. Despite the warning, the Council and its allies issued a statement supporting the UAE's presence, even as others allied with Saudi Arabia demanded Emirati forces withdraw from Yemen in 24 hours' time.

The confrontation threatened to open a new front in Yemen's decadelong war, with forces allied against the Iranian-backed Houthis possibly turning their sights on each other in the Arab world's poorest nation long stalked by famine and disease.

It also further strained ties between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, neighboring nations on the Arabian Peninsula that increasingly have competed with each other over economic issues and the region’s politics, particularly in the wider Red Sea region.

“I expect a calibrated escalation from both sides. The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council is likely to respond by consolidating control,” said Mohammed al-Basha, a Yemen expert and the founder of the Basha Report, a risk advisory firm.

“At the same time, the flow of weapons from the UAE to the STC is set to be curtailed following the port attack, particularly as Saudi Arabia controls the airspace.”

A military statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency announced the strikes, which it said came after ships arrived there from Fujairah, a port city on the UAE’s eastern coast.

“The ships’ crew had the disabled tracking devices aboard the vessels, and unloaded a large amount of weapons and combat vehicles in support of the Southern Transitional Council’s forces,” the statement said.

“Considering that the aforementioned weapons constitute an imminent threat, and an escalation that threatens peace and stability, the Coalition Air Force has conducted this morning a limited airstrike that targeted weapons and military vehicles offloaded from the two vessels in Mukalla,” it added.

It wasn't clear if there were any casualties from the strike.

Yemen’s anti-Houthi forces later declared a state of emergency Tuesday, ending its cooperation with the UAE and ordering all Emirati forces within its territory to evacuate within 24 hours. It issued a 72-hour ban on all border crossings in territory they hold, as well as entries to airports and seaports, except those allowed by Saudi Arabia.

The UAE did not respond to questions from the AP. Abu Dhabi's English-language state-linked newspaper The National reported on the strike.

The Council's AIC satellite news channel aired footage of the aftermath of the strike, but avoided showing damage to the armored vehicles near the port.

“This unjustified escalation against ports and civilian infrastructure will only strengthen popular demands for decisive action and the declaration of a South Arabian state,” the channel said.

The attack likely targeted a ship identified as the Greenland, a roll-on, roll-off vessel flagged out of St. Kitts. Tracking data analyzed by the AP showed the vessel had been in Fujairah on Dec. 22 and arrived in Mukalla on Sunday. The second vessel could not be immediately identified.

Footage later aired by Saudi state television, which appeared to be filmed by a surveillance aircraft, purportedly showed the armored vehicles moving from the ship through Mukalla to a staging area. The types of vehicles corresponded to the social media footage.

Mukalla is in Yemen's Hadramout governorate, which the Council had seized in recent days. The port city is some 480 kilometers (300 miles) northeast of Aden, which has been the seat of power for anti-Houthi forces in Yemen after the rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, back in 2014.

Yemen, on the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula off East Africa, borders the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, as well as Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The war there has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the globe’s worst humanitarian disasters, killing tens of thousands more.

The Houthis, meanwhile, have launched attacks on hundreds of ships in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war, greatly disrupting regional shipping.

The strike Tuesday in Mukalla comes after Saudi Arabia targeted the Council in airstrikes Friday that analysts described as a warning for the separatists to halt their advance and leave the governorates of Hadramout and Mahra.

The Council had pushed out forces there affiliated with the Saudi-backed National Shield Forces, another group in the coalition fighting the Houthis.

Those aligned with the Council have increasingly flown the flag of South Yemen, which was a separate country from 1967-1990. Demonstrators have been rallying for days to support political forces calling for South Yemen to secede again from Yemen.

The actions by the separatists have put pressure on the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which maintain close relations and are members of the OPEC oil cartel, but also have competed for influence and international business in recent years. Saudi Arabia in particular has sought to draw foreign firms from Dubai, home to the long-haul carrier Emirates and long a hub for expatriate workers.

The countries have had border disputes in the past, even before the UAE's founding in 1971. Tuesday's airstrikes and ultimatum appeared to be the most-serious confrontation between the nations in decades.

There has also been an escalation of violence in Sudan, another nation on the Red Sea, where the kingdom and the Emirates support opposing forces in that country’s ongoing war.

A statement Tuesday from Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry directly linked the Council's advance to the Emiratis for the first time.

“The kingdom notes that the steps taken by the sisterly United Arab Emirates are extremely dangerous,” it said.

Allies of the Council issued a statement afterward in which they showed no signs of backing down.

Meanwhile, Israel has acknowledged Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland as an independent nation, the first to do so in over 30 years. That's sparked concern from the Houthis, who have threatened to attack any Israeli presence in Somaliland.

This frame grab from video broadcast by Saudi state television on Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, shows what the kingdom describes as a shipment of weapons and armored vehicles coming from the United Arab Emirates, at Mukalla, Yemen. (Saudi state television via AP)