Nearly 1M children could be separated from parents if Trump's mass deportations continue: Evangelical orgs

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, May 05, 2026

More than 1 million U.S. citizens could be separated from their spouses or children under Trump administration immigration policies, according to a new report backed by Evangelical organizations examining the potential fallout of mass deportations.

The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and its humanitarian arm, the Evangelical refugee resettlement agency World Relief, published a report Monday estimating the impact that President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to deport 1 million illegal immigrants per year will have on U.S. citizen spouses and children of illegal immigrants.

Titled "Joined Together, Torn Apart: How U.S. Immigration Policies Are Separating Families," the document forecasts the effects of halting all immigrant visas for 75 countries, predicting that up to 910,000 U.S. citizen children could be separated from one or both parents by the end of Trump’s term, with 665,000 expected to be separated from both parents.

The organizations estimated the number of illegal immigrants affected by the administration’s policies by assuming it follows through on the president’s pledge, totaling 4 million deportations by the end of his term in early 2029.

“This study takes that goal and randomly selects the removal of undocumented individuals, with no selection bias on the number of years they’ve lived in the U.S., their industry of work or occupation, their country of birth, or their state or city of residence within the U.S.,” the report states.

“The removal of these individuals through detention and eventual deportation includes those who might have once had some kind of temporary protections, including parole or Temporary Protected Status (TPS), protections that have been terminated for many holders.”

The population of immigrants vulnerable to deportation in the study excludes those with asylum claims and illegal immigrants brought to the country as children who are protected from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Researchers estimate that 519,000 U.S. citizen children have no U.S. citizen family members living with them.

“In these cases, parents face an excruciating dilemma: ask to bring their U.S. citizen children with them, even to situations where they would be likely to face mistreatment, violence, extreme poverty, restrictions on religious freedom and other conditions that caused them to flee their countries; or allow their children to be raised by friends, relatives or state-operated foster care systems," the report reads. 

Meanwhile, 272,000 U.S. citizens are expected to be separated from their partners, and 150,000 spouses and children of U.S. citizens will remain separated abroad.

Statistics in the report show there are 5.5 million mixed-status families in the U.S. (familes that have members vulnerable to deportation while others are not), with 12.5 million U.S. citizens living in such households. An estimated 8% of Christians and 6% of Evangelical Christians live in mixed-status households.

There are an estimated 4 million U.S. children who live with at least one parent vulnerable to deportation, along with 1.2 million adult U.S. citizen children in the same situation. An additional 1.2 million U.S. citizens live with spouses who are vulnerable to deportation.

The report argues that policies that result in family separation contradict biblical teachings on the importance of the family.

“At World Relief, we believe that, except in grievous cases where the safety and well-being of a child is in jeopardy, families should remain together,” said World Relief President and CEO Myal Greene in a statement. “When our laws or policies separate families, whether by design or neglect, we cannot remain silent. As Christians, we have a dual responsibility: to honor the law and to petition for better laws. Whom God has placed in families, let no one tear apart.”

NAE President Walter Kim offered a similar assessment.

“When public policies result in the separation of spouses and children, they undermine something sacred and call for careful moral reflection,” he said. “From the opening pages of Scripture, we see that God establishes the family as the foundational institution for human flourishing, long before the establishment of government.”

“For years, the Church has upheld the timeless trio of the orphan, widow and foreigner as those who deserve our compassion,” said Philip Connor, the report’s lead researcher. “By removing foreigners on such a massive scale, we are essentially creating hundreds of thousands of orphans and widows. There are better ways to address these issues without tearing families apart.”

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to make a decision on whether an executive order signed by Trump limiting birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants is constitutional.

Opponents argue that it violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has argued that the 14th Amendment was intended to ensure that freed slaves and their children received full citizenship after the Civil War and “did not grant citizenship to the children of temporary visitors or illegal aliens who have no such allegiance.”