“I really feel like what we’re doing is what God would want us to do,” Rev. Zach Hoover, executive director for LA Voice, said.

The group is willing to not only to take undocumented immigrants, but to hide them in housing provided by their network of churches, mosques, and synagogues across Southern California. Hoover admits it’s a legal gray area and doesn’t discount the possibility of the federal government targeting groups like his in the future.

Still, he says his faith and that of other religious leaders makes it an easier decision to make.

“When you die, the question is not ‘Did you follow the government?’ and then you’re allowed into heaven,” he said. “It’s ‘Did you care for your neighbor?’”