With evangelicals serving as such a foundational platform of support for President Donald Trump’s 2024 candidacy, a new poll sheds light on these Christians’ views about immigration, a key issue for the newly minted Trump administration.
According to Lifeway Research, a new survey shows evangelicals favor “both secure borders and laws that provide avenues for certain illegal immigrants to obtain legal status.”
The majority of evangelicals (61%) voted for Trump while just 33% voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris.
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Since the election, Trump has implemented a number of changes centering on immigration and refugees—decisions that have sparked controversy. It’s unclear where refugee programs, in particular, will go from here, but evangelicals (70%) believe America has a moral responsibility to allow in refugees, with 23% disagreeing, according to Lifeway.
With Trump making moves to deport illegal immigrants, the survey also found evangelicals believe criminals and dangerous individuals should be prioritized amid the crackdown.
Nearly seven in 10 (67%) want the primary focus on those convicted of violent crimes, with 63% stating the same of those “reasonably suspected of presenting a threat to national security.”
A small percentage of evangelicals (19%) would support deporting people brought illegally when they were children. Most of the support for deportations involves the aforementioned factors surrounding violent crime and potential threats to national security.
“A large majority of evangelicals do not want immigrants unlawfully in the country to be prioritized for deportation except if they have been convicted of violent crimes or pose a threat to national security,” Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, said in a statement. “Less than 1-in-6 evangelicals value deporting undocumented immigrants whose immediate family has legal status or who have been in the country for more than five years.”
He continued, “These are their neighbors and families they don’t want to see divided.”
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Reprinted with permission from faithwire.com. Copyright © 2025 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.
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