MIAMI (BP) — Pastor Keny Felix describes a whirlwind.

“From the start of the administration, the focus on deportation, the focus on limiting or closing the border, getting rid of the (Customs and Border Protections One) app that was actually allowing people to go through a legal process. That was very difficult, very challenging,” Felix told Baptist Press (BP).

Felix leads Bethel Evangelical Baptist Church in south Florida, where the U.S. Center for Immigration Studies records the largest community of Haitian immigrants in the nation. He also serves as president of the Haitian Baptist Fellowship.

“[It was] creating a significant amount of concern and fear on the part of the community,” Felix said of an avalanche of changes in U.S. immigration policy in recent weeks. “That’s why we moved very quickly to begin to work collaboratively with lawyers to help people understand very quickly what their rights were.”

Law and order are necessary, he said, but enforcement must be accompanied by compassion that doesn’t demonize those fleeing oppression, persecution or the crisis of poverty.

Swift changes in immigration processes under the Trump Administration are particularly concerning to Felix, who also serves as vice president of the Haitian Christian Leaders Coalition (HCLC), a nonprofit representing Haitian Christians.

Most of the Haitians in the U.S. reside in Florida, home to most of the 500 Southern Baptist Haitian congregations.

As of February 2024, there were 852,000 Haitian immigrants in the U.S., the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey reported, while the Census Bureau’s much larger American Community Survey put the number at 727,000 in July 2022. At that time, 391,000 lived in Florida and by all counts, Florida continues to house more Haitians than any other U.S. state.

More than half of Haitian immigrants in the U.S., 63% in 2022, are U.S. citizens, the Migration Policy Institute said, compared to 53% of the larger national immigrant population.

Stephen Rummage, executive director and treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention, realizes the value Haitian congregations bring to the state.

“Our Haitian congregations have been a vital part of Florida Baptist Convention church life for a long, long time,” he told Baptist Press. “They win many people to Jesus and minister to real needs in countless ways. In my recent meetings with Haitian pastors, I’ve been deeply impressed by the love and concern they have for their churches and their communities.”

Felix, the fellowship, the HCLC and other leaders sprang into action in late 2024 to get a head start on changes anticipated to impact Haitians in the state. HCLC in particular has been hosting forums and connecting pastors and churches with immigration lawyers to provide guidance to members impacted, and pastors have met with local elected officials to express concerns and needs.

HCLC began addressing the issue in January, said HCLC President David Eugene, a Southern Baptist pastor who leads Haitian Evangelical Church in Miami, and will advocate for Haitians across the nation.

“In light of the current changes on immigration policies that will undoubtedly affect the Haitian immigrants in the U.S.,” Eugene said, “the coalition joins its voice with other established organizations to forcefully condemn the unjust treatment of our Haitian brothers and sisters in the USA.

“We will hold press conferences and continue to facilitate seminars to teach our brothers and sisters about their rights, highlight the turmoil that prevails in Haiti and join forces with other civic organizations to protest against the deportation of our Haitian brothers to a country that is unlivable by all accounts.”

Gang violence killed more than 5,600 people and displaced more than 1 million others in Haiti last year, the United Nations said Feb. 27 update on an ongoing humanitarian aid crisis in Haiti. Since Sept. 18, 2024, Haiti has been under a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” advisory from the U.S. State Department, which cited “kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and limited health care.”

Felix will host a meeting tonight (Feb. 28) at his pastorate with Protestant and Catholic clergy from across south Florida to address the current plight of the Haitian community and ways to broaden collaboration in response to the Trump Administration’s policies.

Hosting the event with Felix are HCLC, Faith in Action, Faith in Florida and the non-partisan National Haitian American Elected Officials Network.

“For me, this is the Christian thing to do,” he said. “We see throughout the Scripture where God has a sensitive heart for the most vulnerable. Who am I talking about? The immigrants, the widows, the orphans.

“So now that we’re going through this crisis, I believe that as the Church, regardless of your political affiliation, we can approach this topic with that same level of compassion. Because we’re not talking about uprooting the herd. We’re talking about people. People that have families. People who have kids. People who have mothers, grandmothers. People who have siblings, babies.”

March 3, he will be in Washington for the D.C. Day of Prayer & Action for Vulnerable Families, hosted by Faith in Action and held at the Capitol Hill location of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church.

While in Washington, Felix hopes to meet with the offices of Florida’s congressional delegation members, U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart and Maria Elvira Salazar, both Republicans, whom he feels have greater access to President Trump.

Felix has led his congregation by openly addressing congregants’ concerns and recruiting legal experts to answer questions after Sunday services, in addition to hosting other forums. He believes Christian leaders should address the issue.

“When we have these concerns that are happening at the national level such as immigration, which is a complex issue — and I don’t want to decrease that it’s a complex issue — but just as we speak passionately about being a convention that supports life, that values life,” he said, “as we speak to protect the unborn, I believe we have the responsibility to speak and to advocate on behalf of the immigrant, on behalf of the refugee.

“Regardless of their legal status. From the standpoint of treating people with compassion and embracing their inherent value as human beings created by the same God that we all serve.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.)