Obama immigration action may split religious coalition

Some religious leaders are disappointed to see how quickly others are running away from immigration in the wake of Obama’s decision.

“It is troubling,” Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski said. “The neo-nativists, or the anti-immigrant faction of the Republican Party, has allowed for this to happen. But it’s not the majority of the party. All these people upset with Obama making this decision just have to take a deep breath.”

Many in the religious community, Wenski included, see reason for hope.

The Rev. Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, flew with Obama aboard Air Force One last week when the president traveled to Las Vegas to start selling his immigration plan.

Salguero told Obama his group supported the president’s decision and assured him that the broader religious coalition would stick together to push Congress to pass a long-term solution to the immigration issue. Because, as Salguero put it, religious leaders are unlike politicians and D.C. insiders in one key way.