Contributor: I fled persecution in Iran. ICE enforcement here today reminds me of Tehran

As a Christian who introduced bibles clandestinely into my country of origin in Iran, I have become the target of the Islamist regime of the country, which sometimes imprisoned and kills those who invite Muslims to convert. After having lived under house arrest for two years, I fled as a refugee and I was finally resettled in the United States.

I lived a real religious freedom for the first time in my life in this country, of which I am now a proud and grateful citizen – and that is why I am shocked by the way in which my government now deals with my Iranian faithful, who were detained by masked officers, separated from their families and threatened by the deportation to a country which would kill them for their Christian faith. What I saw gives me flashbacks in Tehran, and I believe that America must be better.

Two families who are part of the evangelical congregation speaking the Farsi that I Pastor in Los Angeles have been detained in recent weeks. First of all, a couple and their 3 -year -old daughter, who are looking for asylum because they fear the persecution if they had returned to Iran. They were detained during their court hearing in downtown Los Angeles on June 23. The whole family is now owned in southern Texas.

The next day, I received a call from a woman from my church. Like me, she had been forced to flee Iran for Turkey when its involvement in the Iranian underground churches was exposed.

When the woman and her husband found themselves in a desperate situation in Turkey last year, they did not have the opportunity to fly to the United States as a resettled refugees that I had been in 2010. Instead, they flew to South America, made a treacherous trip to the north and waited in Mexico an appointment that they reserved on an application of the American government, to American government officers.

Once legally authorized with provisional humanitarian status, they found our Church – where they could be baptized and publicly profess their faith in Jesus – and legal aid to start their asylum request. They received their work authorization documents and found jobs. Their first asylum hearing at the immigration court was scheduled for September.

However, when President Trump returned to functions, his administration has both suspended any resettlement of refugees And A humanitarian parole canceled for those who had been authorized to enter via the CBP One application. Many conditional freed people have received threatening Ask them to self-converse or cope with prosecution, fines or expulsion. But these letters also noted that these instructions were not applied to those who “otherwise obtained a legal basis to stay”, as an asylum request.

This is why I was so shocked to receive a call from the wife of my congregation informing me that her husband had been detained by masked immigration agents in the street, a few pies of our church. I rushed and started to movie The shocking scene: first, he was detained by masked officers, then it was. I asked if they had a judicial mandate, but if they did, they would not show me. The woman experienced a panic crisis and was taken to the hospital but was released in police custody; She is now a few hours old in a detention center in California. Her husband is in a detention center in Texas.

It is not only these two families who are affected. My community of Iranian Christians is terrified to be detained and expelled in Iran, where they fear being killed for their faith. Some have lost jobs because they fear leaving their homes. Others have lost jobs because their work authorization, linked to the humanitarian conditional release, was suddenly terminated.

I think America is better than that. This behavior reminds me of concern what I fled in Iran. But I know that most Americans do not support this, and most evangelical Christian colleagues: many evangelicals voted for Trump because he is committed to protect persecuted Christians – Do not deport them. While most evangelical people want people who are guilty of violent crimes are detained, a quarter or less of us Say that on other immigrants, and 7 out of 10 believe The United States is moral responsibility for receiving refugees. I was overwhelmed by the support of the sisters in English and Spanish of our Church, by the awareness of Christians from across the country and by a recent Biblically rooted declaration Many evangelical leaders of California.

Now the congress has adopted legislation to Exponentially increase funding for the detention and expulsion of immigrants. Trump administration was clear that anyone In the country, illegally – including more than a million which were legally here until its administration suddenly cancels their status – may expel. According to a recent study By the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, 80% of people vulnerable to deportation are Christians; Some, like those of my church, will probably be confronted with death if they were expelled in their country of origin.

I hope and I pray that Trump will reverse the course of these policies, pursuing those who really present a threat of public security, but having mercy on others, in particular those who fled the persecution because of their faith. And until it makes this change of policy, I beg the congress to pass real immigration reforms which would stop these horrible detentions and expels.

Ara Torosian is a pastor in Cornerstone West Los Angeles.