Reverend Salguero has a heart for kids, especially those who
are orphaned by immigration laws.

At least 5,100 children of undocumented parents are
currently in foster care because their mothers and fathers are either detained
in detention centers or deported, according to the Applied Research Center. If
nothing changes, 15,000 more children will face a similar fate in the next five
years.

As law enforcement crackdowns continue–more than 100,000
immigrant parents have been deported over the past 10 years–children remain a
vulnerable, unprotected group.

This reality shatters Rev. Salguero, who ministers to many
undocumented individuals at The Lamb’s Church in New York City. “I am not a politician,”
he says. “I am a pastor. And as an Evangelical Christian, I pray every day that
we find a law that doesn’t separate families. I pray that we’re able to fix
this broken system in a way that’s consistent with the love of God.

“We should not be a country that separates families,” continues
Rev. Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, an
organization that seeks to promote justice for the Hispanic
population.

Rev. Salguero shares the fears of the people he shepherds.
“Many say to me, ‘I’m afraid I’m going to be deported and there won’t be anybody
to pick up my kid from school. What will my child do?’

Stories in the media chronicle this very thing. Some
children–many of whom are U.S. citizens–come home from school, only to find an
empty house. There may be a relative to care for them—or not. If there’s no one
to help them, they go into foster care.

Studies show these children experience feelings of abandonment,
and demonstrate symptoms of emotional trauma, psychological distress and mental
health problems.

Rev. Salguero has seen the effect on deported parents too.
While in Honduras on a trip to rebuild a church, he encountered a woman he
calls Maria. She came to the church and shared her story with him.

Maria had been deported two years ago and left behind two
children, one 8 and the other 12. A relative is caring for them, but she also
is under the fear of deportation, says Rev. Salguero. If that happens, the children
will go into foster care.

“As she told us her story, Maria wept uncontrollably,” Rev.
Salguero shares. “She hadn’t seen her children in two years. They were 6 and 10
when she was ripped from them. How can any mother bear that? We need to take a
compassionate view on this.”

For that compassion, Rev. Salguero turns to the God of the
Bible who mandates welcoming strangers. He also turns to Jesus, who loved
children and urged them to come to him.

Rev. Salguero knows people are sharply divided about
immigration in this country. But children shouldn’t be made to suffer for harsh
laws that destroy families.

“I don’t want to see any more kids in foster care,” says
Rev. Salguero. “I don’t want to see any more mothers or fathers in detention
centers for weeks or months at a time.

“We have to do better than this,” he concludes. “We just
have to.”