North Carolina Evangelical Leaders Urge Halt of Re-Interview Initiatives of Refugees, North Carolinians Among Over 13,600 Christians from All 50 States
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Faith leaders call for DHS oversight into treatment of most-vetted category of immigrant
Contact: Lauren Rasmussen, media@wr.org, 802.310.4255
HIGH POINT, N.C. – North Carolina Christians joined World Relief by adding their name to a letter sent to White House Border Czar Tom Homan, President Trump, members of Congress and administration officials signed by over 13,600 Christians from all 50 states calling for the cessation of any initiative causing refugees to undergo new interviews to re-verify their status as refugees. As Border Czar Homan continues to evaluate immigration enforcement activities following tragic events in Minnesota, evangelical leaders urge him to immediately investigate and cease “Operation PARRIS” and related interviews of refugees resettled by the previous administration, which began under the direction of Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem last month.
“As a nation, we are at an inflection point in the aftermath of tragedy in the streets of Minneapolis,” commented Myal Greene, president and CEO of World Relief. “How we treat ‘the least of these’ is a symptom of the health of the character of our nation. The behavior demonstrated by enforcement agents towards immigrants and U.S. citizens alike over the past weeks and days demonstrates deep sickness. Border Czar Homan and the administration have the opportunity to restore order and rehabilitate the trust that every resident should be able to place in law enforcement, but the work to repair is steep. We ask that he immediately halt Secretary Noem’s Operation PARRIS, and we call on Congressional leaders to include oversight into treatment of refugees in DHS appropriations funding.”
On January 27, World Relief first shared a letter in support of lawfully present refugees who, following the release of a DHS memo in November, have been subjected to increased scrutiny for no other reason than that they had been lawfully resettled between 2021 and 2025. Now, over 13,600 Christians from around the country added their voice to the letter, including from North Carolina, calling on the administration to cease any initiative to reinterview them.
Operation PARRIS (Post-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening), which launched in January in Minnesota, has swept up families (including minor children) and individuals whose green card applications were pending, relocating them to facilities in other states, re-interrogating them, and ejecting them onto the street without the means of returning to their homes across the country.
Refugees are the most vetted category of immigrant, and before they are invited to participate in the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, they must prove a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, political opinion, nationality or membership with a particular group. Once they arrive in the U.S. they are immediately lawfully present with a status that does not expire, and once they have been in the U.S. for a year, they are invited to apply for their green card (Lawful Permanent Resident status). Historically, delays in green card applications have not been cause for repercussions – and, in this case, many delays are the result of DHS suspending processing of refugee green card applications in November 2025.
“North Carolinians value family and keeping our word,” noted Adam Clark, executive director of World Relief Durham. “Operation PARRIS tears families apart and breaks the word of our nation to our newest, law-abiding, tax-paying neighbors. God in scripture tells us to ‘treat immigrants the same way you treat your citizens and love them as your own.’ Operation PARRIS does the opposite; it zip-ties law-abiding neighbors, throws them into unmarked cars and cages them against our own laws and the Bill of Rights. Do y’all want to live in a country where this can happen to you, your neighbors? We call on Congress and the administration to stop Operation PARRIS immediately and any other future attack on immigrant families, as well as any future attack on the integrity of long-standing national commitments protecting refugees and other immigrants.”
“I think often of the words engraved on the Statue of Liberty: ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,’”, commented Meagan Khliefat, office director of World Relief Triad. “New policies that detain and re-interview people who have already endured our country’s most rigorous vetting stray far from those ideals. Refugees have been thoroughly screened and legally admitted, and subjecting them to renewed scrutiny and detention is unnecessary, redundant and deeply retraumatizing. Despite deep disappointment in our government authorities’ betrayal of past national commitments, our team is resolved to make sure the refugees and immigrants who have rebuilt their lives in the Triad over the past three decades know this: they are not alone, and they are welcome here.”
“As a pastor who has come to know and love numerous refugees in my city, I am grieved by the news that lawfully present refugees are being detained and interrogated,” commented Marshall Benbow, teaching pastor at Grace Community Church in Greensboro. “First and foremost, they are men and women who are made in the image of God and should be treated as such. Also, they have followed the process that our country has laid out for them. I urge Congress to reverse this course of action and provide a just system to review reasonable concerns on a case-by-case basis, rather than a blanket re-interview policy. We need a policy that both protects our wonderful nation and honors our word to those we promised to protect.”
While DHS has said the “initial focus” of Operation PARRIS has been on 5,600 refugees who have not yet received their green cards in Minnesota, lawfully resettled refugees in other states also fear that they could eventually be targeted and detained. After several refugees affected by Operation PARRIS filed a lawsuit against Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and other administration leaders, District Judge John Tunheim issued a preliminary injunction halting the detentions until further hearings can take place and requiring refugees in detention to be restored safely to their homes in Minnesota.
“As a pastor and person of faith, I am deeply concerned about Operation PARRIS and the broader movement to eliminate previously granted protections for immigrants,” commented Rev. Leigh Wisner, supply pastor at Shallowford Presbyterian Church in Lewisville. “Walking alongside our newest neighbors has been incredibly transformative for our congregation, and we grieve with families who thought they had followed every rule and are now feeling uncertain for their future in the U.S. This is not fair as they pose no threat to American culture or security, and it is less than what the U.S. government promised them.”
Ben Sloan, United Methodist Pastor in Winston-Salem, commented “The way we are currently treating immigrants in the United States is absolutely devastating. I was an immigrant in Nicaragua for almost three years, and I was treated with respect and dignity for the whole time I lived and worked there. Now I have friends and family, fellow church members and colleagues who have to live in fear of being targeted by ICE. Many, if not most of them, are here legally, but when lawfully present refugees and immigrants are being targeted, everyone is right to worry. I am filled with shame that we are unable to offer the same welcome and hospitality that I received as an immigrant. I’m heartbroken that I will have to explain to my children why several of their friends and teachers from school won’t be back again. I’m deeply saddened that church members have been staying home from worship for fear of being targeted. As a pastor, a father, and a concerned citizen, I call on members of Congress and the administration to halt Operation PARRIS, increase oversight of ICE activities, and make America great again by returning to our principles of welcoming the tired and poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
Rev. Robert P. Travis, rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in High Point, commented “From the earliest times of our faith, the Lord made it very clear how we are to treat foreigners in our midst. In Leviticus 19:34, we read: ‘The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’ Refugees, who have been vetted by our government before their arrival, should by no means be restricted from life in the United States. Their presence here is governed by our faith as well as our laws, and we have a responsibility to treat them as if they were native-born citizens and love them as ourselves. Furthermore, any attempt to change the laws, or remove protective status from refugees already admitted, is a blatant attempt to destroy good-faith humanitarian efforts, a move which smacks of racism and xenophobia and has no place in Christian community.”
Amanda Opelt, care and community administrator at The Heart Church in Boone, NC, commented: “Scripture makes it clear that care for the refugee and sojourner is important to God, so important that it is commanded dozens and dozens of times throughout the Bible. And so as a community of faith, we lament that under Operation PARRIS, many refugees who were vetted and invited to live safely in this country after fleeing violence and religious persecution are now being stripped of the protections promised to them. We understand it is the role of government to enforce laws, including immigration laws. It is the role of the church to recognize and lament when laws are changed and inflict harm on vulnerable groups, in this case, refugees. It is our prayer that Operation PARRIS be halted, and that previously promised protections be reinstated to these highly vetted refugees, that they would be released from detention and treated with the dignity we believe belongs to all human beings made in God’s image.”
Jeff Miller, pastor at Christ Church Greensboro, commented: “It grieves me to learn that our nation, which is made of immigrants, would even consider legislation that would mistreat those who have legally come here under our promise to be a haven for those fleeing violence and persecution, and have honored the process we set forth. I’m horrified by the notion that lawfully present refugees are being detained and interrogated. Families and individuals in our communities, and in our churches needlessly and shamefully fear for their safety and their future. I call upon members of congress and this administration to immediately halt Operation PARRIS, to provide proper oversight to ICE activities, restore and fulfill our promise to lawful refugees ensuring their safe and legal process toward citizenship, and that as a nation we would once again be known – not as a land of broken promises – but as a true beacon of hope.”
Blake Daniel, senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church Winston-Salem commented: “Over the past seven years, our church has walked alongside refugee families through seasons of profound crisis and transition. Our mission as a congregation is to invite all people to say “yes” to Jesus with their whole lives—a calling we believe applies to every neighbor, without exception. It is out of this commitment that I grieve the recent policy changes affecting immigrant and refugee neighbors in Winston-Salem and across our nation. I am especially troubled by reports of lawfully present individuals being detained and interrogated. While I am a pastor and not a politician, I believe this moment urges us to reorient ourselves to the heart of Christ, who tells us in Matthew 25:35: ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me.'”
Rev. Emily Hull McGee, pastor at First Baptist Church on Fifth in Winston-Salem commented: “Among the clearest, most consistent calls in our Christian tradition is that of loving our neighbors and welcoming the stranger, “for you were once strangers in this land” (Ex. 22:21). This Christian commitment extends the dignity of each human being, all who bear the image of God. This administration’s decision to target lawfully present refugees for detention, re-verification, and possible deportation, after their full vetting and welcome, displays the distinct cruelty with which they are treating the stranger in our midst. As a pastor, our refugee, immigrant, and naturalized citizens are among the most faithful and loving in our community, and we wouldn’t be the church we are without them. Operation PARRIS and all the brutal tactics used by ICE betray the ethos of America and break the heart of God. This is a moment for people of faith to demand better of their elected officials, to keep our promises to those who have come legally to our country, and to insist on policies that reflect the ideals encoded in our Constitution: a United States at her best that is just, peaceful, good, and free.”
Several pastors from the High Country, including Rev. Kathy Beach, pastor at Rumple Memorial Presbyterian Church; Rev. Laura Byrch, pastor of community engagement at Boone United Methodist Church and pastor of Blackburn’s Chapel; Rev. Ed Glaize, senior pastor at Boone United Methodist Church; Rev. Jeff Smith, pastor at First Presbyterian Church; Rev. Laura Weant, pastor at Bethany Lutheran Church; Rev. Jonathan Weant, pastor at Lutheran Disaster Response Carolinas; and Rev. Steve Troisi, pastor at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, joined together to comment: “In different ways, all of our churches have been active in ministry with and alongside refugee families. We have seen the fear and devastation caused by the current climate of unlawful and chaotic immigration enforcement. In our roles as pastors, we have felt the impacts of those with no criminal records – mothers, brothers, daughters, sons – being ripped from their families and held in detention centers. This is re-traumatizing for refugees, who had to flee their home countries because of persecution and danger, had to be thoroughly vetted by our Federal government and obtain refugee status before they even enter the U.S., and were given the promise that they could now call the United States of America their home. The actions of ICE and CBP in detaining legal refugees without due process is illegal and immoral; it revokes a promise our government made to these families that they would be safe here. Called by our faith to welcome and love immigrants and refugees, we urge members of Congress and the current administration to immediately halt Operation PARRIS and reinstate refugee resettlement as a safe, vetted, and important component of our civic responsibility. We ask for oversight of ICE activities and an end to detainment quotas.”
World Relief will continue to welcome additional signatories to this letter, with the intention of resending to administration and congressional leaders as the number of signatories continues to grow. Individuals are welcome to add their names at worldrelief.org/statementonrefugees.
To learn more about World Relief Triad, visit worldrelief.org/triad.
About World Relief
World Relief is a global Christian humanitarian organization whose mission is to boldly engage the world’s greatest crises in partnership with the church. The organization was founded in the aftermath of World War II to respond to the displacement crisis in war-torn Europe. Since then, for 80 years, across more than 100 countries, World Relief has partnered with local churches and communities to build a world where families thrive and communities flourish. Since the 1970s, World Relief has partnered with local churches to welcome and serve hundreds of thousands of refugees and other immigrants throughout the United States. To learn more, visit worldrelief.org