Like most evangelical Christians and the plurality of all Americans, I proudly voted for President Donald Trump in November. Washington needed to be shaken up by some commonsense, cost-cutting, old-fashioned conservative values, and Trump is following through on his Make America Great Again agenda. 

However, I’m concerned Trump may have misunderstood evangelical voters in some areas of immigration policy.

I’m among the 90% of evangelical voters who believe our government must ensure secure national borders, according to a survey of evangelical voters conducted last month. But I’m also among the 70% of evangelical voters, including about two-thirds of fellow Trump-voting evangelicals, who believe the United States has a moral obligation to receive refugees — individuals who enter the United States lawfully at the invitation of our government after proving overseas that they face a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons such as their Christian faith. 

Fully 86% of evangelicals believe legal immigration has been a good thing for the U.S., and Trump agrees.

“I want people to come into our country in the largest numbers ever, but they have to come in legally,” the president has said.

While there may be wisdom in a temporary pause on refugee resettlement and other forms of legal immigration to ensure these programs are operating optimally and in the interests of Americans, I am confident this review will confirm that, as the Heritage Foundation reported, “refugees undergo more vetting than any other immigrants to the U.S.” This review will also find that nearly 30,000 of the 100,000 refugees admitted last year were Christians from countries where religious persecution watchdog Open Doors said Christians face the most severe persecution. 

As many conservative evangelical leaders and Christians affirmed in a recent Christian Statement on Refugee Resettlement, “sustaining legal opportunities for entry, particularly for those who have fled persecution, reduces the pressure on individuals to make their own way to the U.S.-Mexico border.”

I also hope Trump ensures that our country keeps its commitment to refugees who have already been lawfully admitted into the U.S. and who our country has committed to providing with short-term housing for up to three months through faith-based organizations such as World Relief while they find work to cover their own rent. The remarkable ways that churches have stepped into the gap after the administration temporarily halted this support demonstrates just how strongly evangelical Christians feel about welcoming refugees. Our government should take note and follow through on its commitment to those who’ve already been resettled. 

Even as evangelicals celebrate rapid improvements to border security under Trump’s leadership, we also want nuanced responses to those who may have come unlawfully many years or even decades ago. Precision with deportation efforts is especially important for those such as Ukrainians, Venezuelans, and Cubans who entered lawfully in recent years but whose temporary legal protections could be withdrawn, putting them at risk of inhumane deportations into humanitarian crises. 

A supermajority of evangelicals want the Trump administration to prioritize the deportation of those convicted of violent crimes, but less than one-fifth of evangelicals believe the same about those who were brought as children, are the parents or spouses of U.S citizens, or would be willing to pay a fine as restitution for unlawfully entering the country or overstaying a visa as their only offense.

Indeed, more than three-quarters of evangelicals want Congress and the president to pursue legislation — along the lines of the Dignity Act proposed in the last Congress by Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL) — that would simultaneously improve border security and allow immigrants in the country unlawfully to earn permanent legal status if they pay a fine as restitution and meet other appropriate requirements such as clearing a criminal background check.

That’s a better solution than pursuing indiscriminate deportations that catch not only the violent criminals who we all want to be removed but also hard-working, churchgoing Christians who are quietly providing for their families. The fear of such deportations is already having a chilling effect, depressing economic activity and frightening people from attending church. 

‘HUNDREDS’ OF TEXAS NATIONAL GUARD SOLDIERS STAND READY TO ARREST AND DEPORT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

If Trump believes his evangelical voting base wants secure borders, he is absolutely right. But if he also thinks that we want deportations of as many as 5 million parents of minor U.S. citizens would be deported, he’s getting some bad guidance. If he thinks the Christian voters who propelled him to the White House again want him to suspend all refugee resettlement, the legal process by which our country welcomes persecuted Christians, he should reconsider.

I pray Trump will heed the perspectives of evangelical voters such as me and secure our borders while celebrating the refugees and other immigrants eager to embrace the responsibilities of citizenship and help him restore this country to greatness.

Tim Moore is the pastor of First Baptist Church of Leander, Texas.