New free resource offers churches guidance in supporting immigrants
Seattle Presbytery
The six-part series offers scripture, PC(USA) policy context, discussion questions, prayer, and suggested action steps
June 4, 2026
Layton Williams Berkes
Presbyterian News Service
How can congregations serve their immigrant members and neighbors at such a precarious time?
This is the question facing many Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) churches today as they seek to walk alongside immigrants in their communities amidst heightened immigration crackdowns, arrests, and deportations. A new resource guide from Presbyterian Life & Witness, an agency of the PC(USA), offers some answers.
In 2022, the 225th General Assembly declared the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to be a “Sanctuary and Accompaniment Church” that "supports and encourages its congregations, mid councils, and members to support immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and their children, and to resist efforts by the government to separate families.”
However, shortly after President Donald Trump took office last year, the administration revoked a Sensitive Locations memo that had previously prevented law enforcement from pursuing unauthorized immigrants at churches, hospitals, schools and other places deemed to provide “essential services.”
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In March 2026, PC(USA) leaders gathered with other faith leaders as part of a vigil in support of asylum-seekers outside the US Supreme Court building. (Photo courtesy of the Office of Public Witness)
This shift has had devastating and far-reaching impacts on the sanctuary movement, in which churches have historically provided shelter to migrants, asylum seekers, and others as they have sought protection and contended with the challenges of the U.S. immigration system. Even beyond disrupting full-time sanctuary efforts, the administration’s immigration policies and actions have made many migrants and immigrants — including those with legal authorization — afraid to participate in church and community life or even leave their homes.
In light of these realities, the Immigration Advocacy Office within Presbyterian Life & Witness has produced a new prayer and resource guide called "Practicing Welcome, Standing with Immigrants." The six-part resource “weaves the journeys told in Luke 2:1–7 and Matthew 2:11–15 with the lived realities of immigrants and refugees residing in or seeking protection in the United States.”