(RNS) — Bigger than 100 Latino Christians leaders signed an announcement saying the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, an evangelical adviser to President Donald Trump and a shuffle-to mutter for Hispanic evangelical perspectives, and news media accept as true with exaggerated the size of Rodriguez’s reach as president of the Nationwide Hispanic Christian Leadership Convention.
In the assertion released Tuesday (March 10), the signers acknowledged they were triggered to discuss out because of the distress the Trump administration’s immigration policies accept as true with completed to Latino communities.
Rodriguez and the Rev. Tony Suarez, vp of the NHCLC, are amongst a handful of Hispanic evangelical pastors advising the president. In most up-to-the-minute months, they’ve lamented that the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement has no longer mad about deporting criminals, and so they’ve persisted to point out for immigration reform by intention of the Dignity Act, a bipartisan immigration invoice.
Several signers of the letter, titled “We’re no longer a monolith, we’re a huge quantity,” acknowledged that whereas Rodriguez represents some Latino evangelicals, he must unruffled no longer be the one real real public representative.
“It’s no longer actual a misrepresentation but how that misrepresentation is impacting the communities we relieve,” acknowledged the Rev. Gabriel Salguero, president of the Nationwide Latino Evangelical Coalition and a letter signer. “Our folk are hurting, and our folk are no longer going to stand for apologists for this roughly immigration action.”
Constructing on years of simmering frustration with Rodriguez amongst some Latino evangelicals, letter signers interviewed by Faith Details Service acknowledged the catalyst for the letter used to be an op-ed by Rodriguez published in Christianity At this time unhurried final month. In it, he wrote that the Latino church “is hemorrhaging” because of immigration enforcement. A week later, Rodriguez posted photos of himself and diverse pastors praying over Trump.
President Donald Trump meets with members of the White Home Faith Place of work in the Oval Place of work, March 5, 2026. (Official White Home Photo by Molly Riley)
“Reverend Rodriguez hasn’t had a switch of heart,” acknowledged the Rev. Carlos Malavé, president of the Latino Christian Nationwide Community, of his interpretation of the op-ed. “I imagine that the motive he is doing that is because he’s beginning to feel a true pushback.”
Rodriguez’s biography on the backside of the piece claims that, by intention of the NHCLC, he “represents millions of Christians worldwide.” Republican Rep. María Elvira Salazar’s office cited the NHCLC as representing bigger than 42,000 church buildings as no longer too lengthy ago as final tumble. Nonetheless, the Tuesday letter alleges each estimates are inaccurate and unparalleled given the numbers of Hispanic church buildings in key denominations.
“This demonstrates the need for media shops to take a look at claims and accurately contemplate the range and complexity of Latino Christian institutions in the United States,” the letter reads.
Reached by phone rapidly after the letter used to be released Tuesday afternoon, Rodriguez acknowledged his community doesn’t “notify at all” relating to public membership figures and accused the letter writers of “bearing false scrutinize.”
Even though he acknowledged that some spokespeople would perhaps well reference certain numbers, Rodriguez acknowledged, “After COVID, there has by no formulation been an articulation on our end result in advise to protect our constituents” from harassment related to coverage positions the NHCLC takes.
“We’re no longer about the need of church buildings, and we’re no longer about the need of millions of folk. We’re about serving our neighborhood,” he acknowledged.
The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez. (Courtesy photo)
The Web Archive displays that the NHCLC’s internet page claimed a membership of larger than 40,000 church buildings as unhurried as October 2020, and an announcement from final tumble acknowledged the NHCLC represents “tens of hundreds” of Hispanic evangelical church buildings worldwide.
On Tuesday evening and on Wednesday, the NHCLC’s internet page has showed error messages and has been inaccessible. An NHCLC spokesperson did no longer directly respond to an RNS query about what precipitated the accumulate internet page outage.
Asked about letter writers’ claims that Christianity At this time published an unverified decide, president and CEO Nicole Martin advised RNS that Rodriguez offered the biography to the newsletter. She acknowledged it had been edited in an the same course of feeble for all understanding writers.
Martin acknowledged she checked with Rodriguez about the assertion’s accuracy after receiving RNS’ request for comment, and he or she forwarded two statements from the NHCLC to RNS.
One assertion acknowledged that the biography used to be correct. “Whereas it is no longer doable to know precisely how many Hispanic Evangelicals fragment our Biblical perspectives, we’re confident that we signify the views of many of the 7-9 million Hispanic Evangelicals in the United States,” the NHCLC wrote, consistent with Martin.
Assessing the precise views of Hispanic evangelicals would perhaps well additionally be no longer easy, but surveys display their political alignment has shifted over time. A 2024 polling analysis from PRRI discovered that the fragment of Hispanic Protestants who typically known as Republicans nearly doubled from 2013 to 2024, rising from 17% to 31%. Meanwhile, the share who establish as Democrats declined from 31% to 23%. A 2025 Pew Review discover discovered an very glorious starker distinction, with 36% of Latino grownup Protestants leaning Republican or identifying with the birthday party, when put next with 19% who acknowledged they lean toward or affiliate with the Democratic Occasion.
Even so, Hispanic Protestants accept as true with voiced true disagreement with Trump’s immigration policies. A PRRI discover conducted final August and September discovered that 64% of Hispanic Protestants acknowledged they’ve dinky or no self perception in Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and 57% agreed that will increase to the company’s funding accept as true with long gone too far. In a similar intention, a Pew Review discover conducted all the intention in which by intention of the the same time discovered that 55% of grownup Latino evangelical Protestants acknowledged they strongly or considerably disagreed with the president’s overall formulation to immigration.
The NHCLC sent RNS an announcement that learn: “The integrity of our illustration is thoroughly verified. The necessity of church buildings affiliated by intention of our denominational companions, networks, and chapters is formally certified by intention of a rigorous interior course of overseen by Mat Staver, Chief Lawful Counsel, veteran Dean of Liberty College College of Law, and President and CEO of Liberty Counsel.” A spokesperson did no longer provide an approximate membership quantity when requested by RNS on a pair of events.
The coalition letter criticizing media illustration of Rodriguez used to be signed by Latino leaders all the intention in which by intention of the U.S. and denominational backgrounds, collectively with some from the Assemblies of God, the denomination wherein Rodriguez first grew to alter into a pastor. Other leaders who signed on reach from the Reformed Church in The usa, Evangelical Covenant Church, Church of God of Prophecy, American Baptist Churches USA, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the United Methodist Church, nondenominational Pentecostal church buildings and various other seminaries, collectively with Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
The community of letter signers additionally entails some who accept as true with longer histories with Rodriguez, delight in the Rev. Elizabeth Rios, founding father of the Passion2Plant Community for church planting. Reviewing her guide in 2013, Rodriguez referred to as her “one in all the most anointed and talented leaders in the kingdom this present day.”
Rios acknowledged she’s requested journalists why they overrepresent his mutter, and so they say their editors required them to discuss with him. “It’s no longer about him per se,” Rios acknowledged. “We’re actual drained of folk consistently pivoting to him as the unverified particular person that’s representing millions of folk.”
“We actual don’t notify that he’s a reliable scrutinize,” she added — a feeling that’s been rising over the final decade. “No one in the Latino neighborhood wished to call him out because we by no formulation wish to throw our bear below the bus.”
However, she acknowledged, “We’ve to establish that journalists are helping to disaster our neighborhood by no longer verifying the sources that they exercise.”
Rodriguez acknowledged he had no longer learn the letter but on Tuesday afternoon but that criticisms of him were motivated by personal animus and jealousy. “I’ve by no formulation claimed to indicate the woke evangelical left,” Rodriguez acknowledged. “It’s actual a family dialog taking space which shouldn’t happen publicly.”
No topic the disagreement, he acknowledged he would practice the biblical advise to “delight in and forgive and bless your enemies,” explaining, “In the event that they imagine the Nicene Creed, these are my brothers and sisters who I will gaze in heaven.”
A pair of Latino leaders who signed the letter advised RNS that they attempted to handle their concerns in personal with Rodriguez in most up-to-the-minute years and that they had requested journalists to broaden their coverage of Hispanic Christians.
Rodriguez additionally acknowledged he supported diverse voices being represented in the media and that assembly with Trump whereas criticizing his administration’s policies is “a issue.”
“I wander into these corridors of office with humility, and I count on God to actual give me the real phrases that will assist switch hearts and minds — for the political leaders to delight in this blessed neighborhood, the Latino neighborhood overall, the Hispanic neighborhood, the immigrant neighborhood, as a blessing and no longer a burden,” Rodriguez acknowledged.
He acknowledged Trump has doubled down on deporting criminals and discovering “a solution for the acceptable folk,” relating to immigrants. “Even previously 48, 72 hours, he’s talked about the fact that these folk are appropriate folk, we now accept as true with to get a solution,” Rodriguez acknowledged of Trump.
Daniel Montañez, executive director for the Center for Public Theology and Migration and a put up-doctoral affiliate at Boston College, acknowledged he’s witnessing “seismic shifts” within U.S. Latinos.
“I am hoping that we’re in a position to contemplate our company and autonomy within elevated public narratives about our neighborhood,” acknowledged Montañez, who signed the letter. “That we’re in a position to return collectively in this 2nd and score an announcement delight in this is one thing that is very essential.”
RNS Nationwide Reporter Jack Jenkins contributed to this mutter.
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