I also want to address the meaning of “authority” in the American context.

I am also stating upfront that my argument addresses my memory of your initial framing: Christians should not protest/oppose ICE immigration enforcement as has been practiced until recently (the administration has displayed an amazing amount of backtracking in the past 24 hours or so ²).

I do not condone the conduct of all the Minnesota protestors. I’ve found it frequently overly aggressive, and I find the insults and profanity profoundly unloving, which no Christian should endorse. That doesn’t mean I agree with the proposition that Christians shouldn’t protest. I’m also not aware of many Christians participating in the protests, though I have seen a few. I actually find it kind of sad that there isn’t a strong Christian presence. I would like to see Christians offering themselves up as arrestees to help agents meet quotas³.

Romans 13

First, let’s look at Romans 13⁴. To do so, we must start with Romans 12⁵. Remember, there were no chapter headings in the original letters. Scripture interprets scripture. In Romans 12, Paul gave a litany of commands that shape the church’s posture toward the world. He told us not to conform to the patterns of the world. He told us not to be proud and to associate with people of low positions. We are to feed those in need and not overcome evil with evil. And importantly, he said that as near as depends on each of us, we should live at peace with everyone.

That doesn’t sound like someone who is blessing the violence of empire. He is describing the posture of a Christian in the shadow of empire — peace-loving, non-confrontational, and pursuing justice and mercy, focused on unity among believers and giving no offense in the normal course of conduct to others in their community. Romans 12 seeks to cultivate a church that is humble, peaceful, Christlike, and that avoids unnecessary conflicts⁶.

Christians should not be stirring up unrest, which is not the same as saying they should conform to empire.

Paul, a Pharisee among Pharisees (Acts 23:6), would also not adopt a doctrine that contradicted scripture, and scripture is clear that God’s people should be champions of justice.

“Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” – Isaiah 1:17

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” – Micah 6:8

Nor would he contradict Jesus.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you…have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” – Matthew 23:23

Clearly, we are creating a conflict with scripture and Paul’s own letters and actions, which I’ll get to below, if we take an absolutist stance on Romans 13. As Preston Sprinkles notes in his book Exiles: The Church in Shadow of Empire, we should not read into Romans 13 a pro-government doctrine. That reading “should be tempered by other passages that refer to Rome as a satanically empowered beast ruled by harlots who are drunk on power, violence, and luxury who are destined to destruction (e.g. Rev. 13:17-8).”⁷

So, let’s look at some of the inconsistencies the Romans 13 absolutist stance creates.

• If Jochebed, Miriam, and Pharaoh’s daughter had read Romans 13 and read it the way you seem to do, they would have submitted to Pharaoh’s decree, and Moses would have died as an infant. (Exodus 2:1–10, Exodus 6:20; Numbers 26:59.)

• Moses, according to this reading of Romans 13, should have submitted to Pharaoh instead of listening to God (Exodus).

• In a Romans 13 world, Nathan shouldn’t have confronted David with his sin, calling him to repentance. He should have bowed to David’s greater authority. In such a world, it would be the King’s prerogative to rape another man’s wife and then have that man murdered. (2 Samuel 12:1–15)

• When Herod ordered the slaughter of innocents, Joseph and Mary should have submitted to the sword of empire and not fled to Egypt. (Matthew 2:16-18)

• For Paul, preaching a king other than Caesar was a crime, a crime that would eventually cost him his earthly life. If he believed Romans 13 as you do, he shouldn’t have preached Jesus as the son of God and lord of creation, positions according to Roman law, only Caesar held.

• Finally, Jesus should have submitted to the authorities of the Sanhedrin instead of going to the cross.

Perhaps we should also look at American history? Anabaptist theologian David Bercot wrote a book called In God We Do Not Trust. I think he gets some history wrong, but his central claim is bold: The Founding Fathers violated Romans 13.⁸ You might want to read that book, because if I’m understanding what you are saying, you would agree with that central premise.

And what about the Civil Rights Movement? Should Martin Luther King have just stayed home and kept his mouth shut? Setting aside the evidence that King wasn’t a Christian⁹, he was a great expositor of the Biblical mandate for Christians to seek justice¹⁰. Without his leadership, we would still have Jim Crow, white-only lunch counters and drinking fountains, redlining, and workplace discrimination, and there would never be any Christians to protest lynching. Am I understanding your reading of Romans 13 correctly?

In your reading of Romans 13, the government didn’t do anything wrong at Ruby Ridge¹¹ or Waco, Texas¹², simply because the government has the authority to do what it wants.

Here’s one protest we can at least agree on: Jan. 6¹³ was a sin. No Christian should have participated (I wouldn’t frame it in terms of Romans 13, but more along the lines of avoiding hate, avoiding violence, and not bearing false witness). But if citing Romans 13 is what it takes for us to agree on that point, I’ll join in.

In the absolutist Romans 13 reading, there was nothing wrong with Hitler establishing the Reich Church¹⁴. It was OK to abolish the Hebrew Bible, make Jesus an Aryan, and remove him from the cross because the cross made Jesus weak. Bonhoeffer wasn’t a martyr but a rebel against government authority. The only true Christians in Nazi Germany were members of the Reich Church, and the heretics were part of the Confessional Church¹⁵.

Those are the logical conclusions of an absolutist reading of Romans 13.

But perhaps I’m over-reading your position. Perhaps you might say that those examples go too far and you wouldn’t go along with that absolutist reading of Romans 13. There is a line that could be drawn somewhere. That Christians should oppose injustice, seek to protect the oppressed, afflicted and innocent.

Christian Justice

Where is that line?

Might that line be somewhere that a Christian who opposes Trump’s immigration policy would draw it?

Perhaps we look at the lies the administration tells about immigrants — they’re all a bunch of criminals and welfare cheats who are a drag on the economy — and we say it’s wrong to lie about our fellow image bearers¹⁶¹⁷¹⁸.

Or perhaps we look at how mass deportation is being carried out — depriving people of due process, using cruel and excessive force, taking people — even citizens — into custody without probable cause, and sending people to foreign concentration camps in violation of court orders, as deeply in violation of not only our own laws but what God commands^19202122.

“When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. 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.” – Leviticus 19:33–34

“He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing.” – Deuteronomy 10:18

“Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” – Psalm 82:3–4

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you give a tenth of your mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” – Matthew 23:23

When we use crime as an excuse to mistreat foreigners, we are endorsing injustice. Several studies, including the conservative think tank Cato, have documented that migrants of all types, even undocumented, commit fewer crimes than native-born citizens, including fewer felonies ²³²⁴²⁵. U.S.-born citizens were more than twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times more likely for drug crimes, and over four times more likely for property crimes than undocumented immigrants²⁶.

The Trump administration made numerous false claims about many of the men sent to CECOT. Very few of them had proven gang ties, and many of them had no serious criminal record. Yet, they were rounded up like cattle, denied due process, and shipped off to a foreign concentration camp, and then the Trump Administration defied multiple court orders to bring them back, lying about their ability to do so²⁷²⁸²⁹.

This not only violates our own laws but also violates God’s command for impartiality before judges (Deuteronomy 1:17, Leviticus 19:15, Deuteronomy 16:19, Proverbs 24:23).

So I have a hard time accepting “crime” as a real reason for Trump to push for a crackdown on immigrants.

As for the economics of the issue, undocumented immigrants cannot receive SNAP, Section 8 housing, Medicaid, Medicare, or Social Security, even though the vast majority of undocumented workers are subject to withholding and are also subject to all the other taxes we all pay while in the country³⁰³¹.

In 2022, the United States’ 10.9 million undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes—about $8,889 in taxes per person per year. More than a third of that went into Social Security, Medicare, and other social insurance programs, which they are largely barred from accessing³².

In 40 states, undocumented immigrants pay a higher effective state and local tax rate than the top 1% of households, often around 10% of their income, while lacking access to many of the programs those taxes fund ³³.

Undocumented workers expand the labor force and the GDP. Unauthorized immigrants make up about 8.3 million workers—roughly 4–5% of the U.S. labor force. They fill key roles in agriculture, construction, food processing, caregiving, and services. Removing them would shrink hours worked, lower output, and cause a long‑run drop in U.S. GDP of about 6.2% (roughly $1.7 trillion at 2023 levels). Removing them from the economy increases inflation³⁴³⁵.

One study estimated that for every one million undocumented workers removed from the economy, 88,000 native-born workers will lose jobs³⁶.

Economists find that immigrants and natives typically perform different tasks even within similar occupations, which raises productivity and allows natives to move into more communication‑ and management‑intensive roles. Across the 1990–2006 period, immigration’s impact on the wages of U.S.‑born workers without a high school diploma was less than 1 percentage point, while average native wages slightly increased³⁷³⁸.

So the economic argument often made by MAGA to support an immigrant crackdown makes no sense based on data.

As for how ICE is enforcing Trump’s immigration policy, I’ve seen dozens of videos of immigrants having car windows smashed, doors being broken down, being beaten and pepper-sprayed often without probable causeor warrants (speaking with an accent, contrary to ICE, is not probable cause).

God is clear that he stands against unjust governments. The prophet Isaiah tells us that the Lord said,

Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,

to deprive the poor of their rights

and withhold justice from the oppressed (Isaiah 10:1-2)

Ezekiel, Amos, and Jeremiah all warned Kings who were unjust and neglected to properly care for the people, especially the marginalized of society.

Constitutional Authority

Which brings us to the United States Constitution.

I’m not sure whether you would affirm that the U.S. was created as a Christian nation (I wouldn’t), but I think we can both agree that God is sovereign and that the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights are God-ordained.

If that’s the case, if Romans 13 means anything for a Christian, it means that the Constitution, not any man, including the president, is the governing authority. In a Romans 13 context, even the president is bound to obey the Constitution, or he is disobeying God.

The Constitution requires checks and balances, but there are no meaningful checks on this administration. That should appall every Christian who believes in the sacredness of our founding documents.

And this administration has been found to violate the Constitution on numerous occasions.

Here’s a partial list of Conditional violations by this administration:

• Use of the wartime Alien Enemies Act and rapid‑removal programs to summarily deport people (including alleged Venezuelan gang members) without meaningful hearings, raising serious Fifth Amendment due‑process concerns³⁹.

• Deportations of U.S. citizens and others with lawful status, in direct defiance of court orders⁴⁰.

• Executive Order 14160, attempting to end birthright citizenship for some U.S.-born children of non‑citizens, has been repeatedly blocked as “likely unconstitutional,” conflicting with the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause; multiple federal judges have called it “blatantly unconstitutional.”⁴¹

• First Amendment violations: Targeting law firms and universities that challenged his policies or maintained DEI programs, with threats to yank federal contracts and grants in ways courts and legal experts say violate free speech, free association, and viewpoint‑discrimination rules.⁴²⁴³⁴⁴

• Deploying federal forces and National Guard units against largely peaceful protesters, arresting people without charges, and retaliating against critics—actions civil‑rights groups describe as attacks on freedom of speech and assembly⁴⁵⁴⁶⁴⁷.

• Multiple reports document the administration’s habit of ignoring or slow‑walking compliance with federal court injunctions, especially on immigration, prompting hundreds of lawsuits and dozens of restraining orders⁴⁸⁴⁹⁵⁰.

These violations, in a Romans 13 context, put Christians who support Trump in a double bind. They either must affirm that Romans 13 means nothing, not even the slightest check on a government that is disobeying its own laws, or acknowledge that they really do care about the Constitution and affirm that Christians should follow it and expect their leaders to do the same. Christians should not approach Romans 13 with a double standard: one set of rules for Christians they disagree with and another for the politicians they support.

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1. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%2013%3A1-7&version=NIV

2. https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/26/politics/wh-minnesota-trump-ice-minneapolis

3. https://immpolicytracking.org/policies/report-ice-directed-to-increase-arrests-to-meet-daily-quotas/

4. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%2013%3A1-7&version=NIV

5. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%2012&version=NIV

6. Preston Sprinkle, Exiles: The Church in the Shadow of Empire (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2024), 165.

7. Sprinkle, Exiles, 166.

8. David Bercot, In God We Don’t Trust: A Look at the Founding of America in the Light of Jesus’ Teachings (Amberson, PA: Scroll Publishing Co., 2011)

9. Martin Luther King, Jr., “The Humanity and Divinity of Jesus,” (essay, Crozer Theological Seminary, November 29, 1949–February 15, 1950), in The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Volume I: Called to Serve, January 1929–June 1951, ed. Clayborne Carson (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), 257–262.

10. David J. Garrow, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1986)

11. U.S. Department of Justice, Report of the Ruby Ridge Task Force to the Office of Professional Responsibility of Investigation of Allegations of Improper Governmental Conduct (Washington, DC: June 10, 1994), https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opr/legacy/2006/11/09/rubyreportcover39.pdf.

12. Department of the Treasury, Report of the Department of the Treasury on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Investigation of Vernon Wayne Howell, also known as David Koresh (Washington, DC: September 1993), https://www.policinginstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/DOT-Report-ATF-Investigation-of-David-KoreshSept-1993.pdf.

13. Brian Duignan, “January 6 U.S. Capitol Attack,” Encyclopedia Britannica, last modified January 8, 2026, https://www.britannica.com/event/January-6-U-S-Capitol-attack.

14. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “The German Churches and the Nazi State,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, accessed January 28, 2026, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-german-churches-and-the-nazi-state.

15. “The Theological Declaration of Barmen,” May 29–31, 1934, in The Book of Confessions, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), accessed January 28, 2026, https://www.creeds.net/reformed/barmen.htm.

16. Alex Nowrasteh and Jerome Famularo, “Immigrants Have Lower Lifetime Incarceration Rates than Native-Born Americans,” Cato at Liberty, September 18, 2025, https://www.cato.org/blog/immigrants-have-lower-lifetime-incarceration-rates-native-born-americans.

17. Alex Nowrasteh and Jerome Famularo, “Immigrants Still Use Much Less Welfare Than Native-Born Americans,” Cato Institute, January 27, 2026, https://www.cato.org/blog/immigrants-still-use-much-less-welfare-native-born-americans.

18. “Correcting the Record: False or Misleading Statements on Immigration.” Center for Migration Studies (CMS), July 24, 2024, https://cmsny.org/correcting-record-false-misleading-statements-on-immigration/.

19. American Immigration Council, “As ICE Courthouse Arrests Continue, Few Immigration Courts Resist Pushing Cases Into Expedited Removal,” November 20, 2025, https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/about-immigration/due-process-and-courts/.

20. Mckenzie Funk and Nicole Foy, “We Found More Than 40 Cases of Immigration Agents Using Banned Chokeholds and Other Moves That Can Cut Off Breathing,” ProPublica, January 13, 2026, https://www.propublica.org/article/ice-immigration-agents-chokeholds-force.

21. Nicole Foy, “More than 170 US Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents,” ProPublica (republished by OPB), October 16, 2025, https://www.opb.org/article/2025/10/16/immigration-ice-arrests-propublica-white-house-deportation-immigrants-sweep/.

22. American Immigration Council, “Immigration Detention Is Harsher and Less Accountable Than Ever,” January 14, 2026, https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/press-release/report-trump-immigration-detention-2026/.

23. Alex Nowrasteh and Jerome Famularo, “Immigrants Have Lower Lifetime Incarceration Rates than Native-Born Americans,” Cato at Liberty, September 18, 2025, https://www.cato.org/blog/immigrants-have-lower-lifetime-incarceration-rates-native-born-americans.

24. Alex Nowrasteh and Jerome Famularo, “Immigrants Still Use Much Less Welfare Than Native-Born Americans,” Cato Institute, January 27, 2026, https://www.cato.org/blog/immigrants-still-use-much-less-welfare-native-born-americans.

25. “Correcting the Record: False or Misleading Statements on Immigration.” Center for Migration Studies (CMS), July 24, 2024, https://cmsny.org/correcting-record-false-misleading-statements-on-immigration/.

26. National Institute of Justice, “Undocumented Immigrant Offending Rate Lower Than U.S.-Born Citizen Rate,” September 12, 2024, https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/undocumented-immigrant-offending-rate-lower-us-born-citizen-rate.

27. David J. Bier, “DHS Doesn’t List CECOT Prison Deportees in Its ‘Worst of the Worst’ Data,” Cato at Liberty, December 23, 2025, https://www.cato.org/blog/dhs-doesnt-list-cecot-deportees-its-worst-worst-data.

28. “The Men Trump Deported to a Salvadoran Prison,” ProPublica, July 23, 2025, https://projects.propublica.org/venezuelan-immigrants-trump-deported-cecot/.

29. “Despite SCOTUS Ruling, Trump Admin Refuses to Return Man It Wrongly Deported,” Democracy Docket, April 14, 2025, https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/trump-abrego-garcia-maryland-return-el-salvador-prison/.

30. American Immigration Council, “Can Undocumented Immigrants Get SNAP or Medicaid? The Truth About Federal Benefits,” November 14, 2025, https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/undocumented-immigrants-snap-medicaid-benefits/.

31. Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), “Tax Payments by Undocumented Immigrants,” July 30, 2024, https://itep.org/undocumented-immigrants-taxes-2024/.

32. Marco Guzman and ITEP Staff, Tax Payments by Undocumented Immigrants (Washington, DC: Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, July 30, 2024), https://itep.org/undocumented-immigrants-taxes-2024/.

33. Marco Guzman and ITEP Staff, Tax Payments by Undocumented Immigrants (Washington, DC: Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, July 30, 2024), https://itep.org/undocumented-immigrants-taxes-2024/.

34. Warwick McKibbin, Megan Hogan, and Marcus Noland, The International Economic Implications of a Second Trump Presidency, Working Paper 24-20 (Washington, DC: Peterson Institute for International Economics, September 2024), https://www.piie.com/publications/working-papers/2024/international-economic-implications-second-trump-presidency.

35. Jeffrey S. Passel and Jens Manuel Krogstad, “What We Know About Unauthorized Immigrants Living in the U.S.,” Pew Research Center, July 22, 2024, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/07/22/what-we-know-about-unauthorized-immigrants-living-in-the-us/.

36. Michael Clemens, “Trump’s Proposed Mass Deportations Would Backfire on US Workers,” RealTime Economics (blog), Peterson Institute for International Economics, March 6, 2024, https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economics/2024/trumps-proposed-mass-deportations-would-backfire-us-workers.

37. Giovanni Peri and Chad Sparber, “Task Specialization, Immigration, and Wages,” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 1, no. 3 (July 2009): 135–69, https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.1.3.135.

38. Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano and Giovanni Peri, Rethinking the Effects of Immigration on Wages, NBER Working Paper 12497 (Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, August 2006), https://www.nber.org/papers/w12497.

39. Trump v. J.G.G., 604 U.S. (2025) (per curiam), https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a9312c83.pdf.

40. “The Trump Administration’s ICE and CBP Have Become a Threat to Americans: Congress Must Ensure That DHS Follows the Law and Adopts Commonsense Reforms.” Center for American Progress, 28 Jan. 2026, https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-trump-administrations-ice-and-cbp-have-become-a-threat-to-americans-congress-must-ensure-that-dhs-follows-the-law-and-adopts-commonsense-reforms/.

41. State of Washington v. Trump, 764 F. Supp. 3d 1050 (W.D. Wash. 2025). See also: American Immigration Council, “Breaking Down Trump’s Attempt to End Birthright Citizenship,” February 7, 2025, https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/breaking-down-trump-end-birthright-citizenship/.

42. Perkins Coie LLP v. Trump, No. 1:25-cv-01234 (D.D.C. March 11, 2025); see also “Report on the Trump Administration’s 2025 Changes to Immigration Law,” New York City Bar Association, October 10, 2025, https://www.nycbar.org/reports/trump-administration-2025-changes/.

43. National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE) v. Trump, No. 1:25-cv-00333 (D. Md. February 21, 2025).

44. Fell v. Trump, No. 1:25-cv-09876 (D.D.C. December 3, 2025); see also “Former Federal Employees Sue Trump Administration for First Amendment Violations,” ACLU of DC, December 3, 2025, https://www.acludc.org/press-releases/former-federal-employees-sue-trump/.

45. Illinois v. Federalized National Guard, No. 25-2798 (7th Cir. January 22, 2026); see also “Supreme Court rejects Trump’s effort to deploy National Guard in Illinois,” SCOTUSblog, December 23, 2025, https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/12/supreme-court-rejects-trumps-effort-to-deploy-national-guard-in-illinois/.

46. “Three arrested in St. Paul church protest as judge rejects charges against Don Lemon,” The Washington Post, January 22, 2026, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/01/22/minnesota-church-protesters-justice-department-arrests/.

47. State of Minnesota v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, No. 0:26-cv-00190 (D. Minn. filed January 12, 2026), https://www.ag.state.mn.us/Office/Communications/2026/docs/00190DHSComplaint.pdf.

48. Trump v. J.G.G., 604 U.S. (2025); see also “Federal Judges Scold DOJ Lawyers Over Courtroom Conduct in 2025,” Bloomberg Law, December 29, 2025, https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/federal-judges-scold-doj-lawyers-over-courtroom-conduct-in-2025.

49. “Immigration Task Force: 2025 Retrospective and the Road Ahead.” Gibson Dunn, 27 Jan. 2026, https://www.gibsondunn.com/immigration-task-force-2025-retrospective-and-the-road-ahead/.

50. Just Security. (2026, January 27). Litigation tracker: Legal challenges to Trump administration actions. https://www.justsecurity.org/107087/tracker-litigation-legal-challenges-trump-administration/