SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
The Trump administration's deportation surge has affected communities across the country in different ways.
UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR: (Singing, inaudible).
MCCAMMON: In Memphis, two local pastors are responding to the moment, which has deeply affected Afghans in their community.
STEPHEN COOK: They face the prospect that they may die because of their faith in Jesus if they are sent back to the place from which they have fled.
MCCAMMON: That's Stephen Cook, the senior pastor of Second Baptist Church, who's become friends with Latif Salar, the leader of the Christ Community Afghan Church. Since the Trump administration halted asylum processing for all immigrants from Afghanistan last fall, the two have been working closely together to support members of Salar's congregation who fear deportation. When we talked recently, I began by asking Pastor Salar what happened after two National Guard members were shot in Washington, D.C. - one fatally - by a man from Afghanistan. It wasn't long, he says, before immigration agents came to his door and began approaching others in his community.
LATIF SALAR: They came and took my brother-in-law with all his family and two kids, 9 years and 5 years old. All the world is know that the Christian people cannot live, especially in this time, in Afghanistan. If they go back, the penalty is death. We disappointed when we see what happening here. My kids, like, see that their cousins are took by ICE, and they heard that. Now they are scared, and my neighbor are scared.
MCCAMMON: How are you and the rest of the congregation dealing with the uncertainty you're facing right now, given everything that's going on?
SALAR: They feel depression, get trauma. And they scared. They worry about their future. At the same time, I'm so, so happy for the churches, especially Second Baptist Church. They step in, and they rise their voice, and they speak out about the problem they have. And I'm really thankful for the church here in Memphis.
MCCAMMON: Pastor Cook, how has your congregation been responding? What can you do?
COOK: We have reached out to elected officials at every level of government - locally, statewide, nationally - and we've really tried to tell the story. It is wrong. It is cruel for a family where a father is taking his sons to school on a December morning - for him to be surrounded by and apprehended by ICE agents, for his children to be taken into custody, and then for him to be told that if his wife would come and arrive at the detention facility here in Memphis that she could take the children home with her, only for her not to be given the children but instead for her to be taken into custody. This has not been a matter of political party alignment so much as it has been a matter of conscience and a sense of calling and conviction that these are vulnerable neighbors. The Bible is very, very clear about the fact that we are to love God and to love our neighbors. And there's this consistent thread that's woven into the fabric of Hebrew and Christian scriptures that calls us to be especially mindful of the immigrants who are in our midst.
MCCAMMON: Pastor Salar, you touched on this earlier, but what would deportation to Afghanistan mean for members of your church?
SALAR: Yeah, it's so clear if the deportation happen, they will die. They are in great danger because most of them, when they came to USA, they share their faith openly. They share what they believe. Most of them, they share back to their own family about their faith. And even if there is not from the government or from the Taliban, but they will be in danger from their own family.
MCCAMMON: Are people in your church - are they afraid to go out right now? Has there been any need for help from Pastor Cook's church just getting by day to day?
SALAR: A few of the Afghan family, they still need help to drove them to the grocery and also they need help to support them financially because some of them, they cannot work here, and that's why they depend on the other believers.
COOK: On the day-to-day basis, I stay in regular contact with Pastor Salar and from other organizations in our community who are trying to coalesce around ways that we can speak up and raise awareness of what is happening.
MCCAMMON: When you do get together, your two churches, what's it like? What do you - how do you come together?
COOK: I think one of the beautiful things that we have been able to share together on numerous occasions have been times where we're around the tables with one another and sharing in food and fellowship. It is a beautiful sight to have our Afghan friends join us at Second Baptist and to share meals together where they will bring food that is not common to most of our American households and where we can help share food with them. We take our cue from the Jesus that we meet in the Gospels, who was oftentimes sitting down with the people that he was also standing up for. And this is one of the ways that we love being able to share our lives together.
SALAR: When we get together, what Pastor Cook said, you know, food and fellowship, especially Afghan learn a lot about American culture and how they reaching to people, how they talk to people, and the culture is very important. Afghan learn many of these from the church, especially from Second Baptist Church and American culture because we want to adjust to this country. We want to know about America. We want to know about this culture - about this country's culture.
MCCAMMON: I'm sure you're both well aware of the situation in Minneapolis where immigration agents have shot and killed two protesters in recent weeks. What's on your minds as you watch that situation play out?
COOK: This is deeply, deeply disturbing. And this is a moment where, as a nation, we have to be attentive to the fact that we cannot go without naming. This is a grave moral failure on our part, that this is where we have come to be collectively. And my heart breaks for the realities that we're seeing played out. And this is part of what we are trying to do in our own community, is to walk alongside in as many tangible and practical ways as we can. I was tremendously proud of the youth from our congregation at Second Baptist, who upon learning of the needs that exist in the Afghan church - there is an annual fundraiser in community ministry that our youth sponsor, and they took a portion of the proceeds from that in order to pay for the legal expenses for one of the detained Afghans. And the response in those kinds of practical ways has been something that is very encouraging.
MCCAMMON: How do you imagine life in America looking? What do you hope and what do you envision?
SALAR: Something I see in America that this is God's blessing over America. And many American people do not see that. Because we came from the different country - we came from the persecution life that we arrive here, praying for this country, that God saved this country, that people separate from this country to all over the world, that people can see the hands of God here. This is what I pray for America.
MCCAMMON: What should I know about Pastor Cook and the way that he leads his congregation?
SALAR: He have, like, a fatherly heart, and we can see Jesus live in him in the way he smile and the way he act, and every Afghan knows that how much he have love for the lost.
MCCAMMON: Pastor Cook, I'll put the same question to you. What should I know about Pastor Salar?
COOK: This is a man who loves God, and he loves his people. And he has endured circumstances and has come through suffering and persecution that is utterly unimaginable to the vast majority of Americans. And when I see the way that he so humbly and faithfully tends to and cares for and protects the people who are in his congregation, I see the kind of pastor that I would love to be when I grow up.
SALAR: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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