Amid the blare of an ambulance siren, a bus rolling by and an elevated train passing down the block, David Swanson was determined to keep praying.

Asking a crowd of more than 150 evangelical church members, activists, pastors and college students gathered across the street from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in downtown Chicago to raise their candles in the air, Swanson quoted the famed journalist Ida B. Wells as he began praying on Oct. 26.

“The way to right a wrong is to shine,” he said, waiting for the siren to fade before going on.

“Sojourner God, we ask you today for justice,” Swanson prayed. “You who require of your people balanced scales and truthful testimonies, we ask that you intervene on behalf of those for whom justice has been delayed and fairness has been denied.”

During the Trump era, evangelicals, who once supported immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship for those in the country illegally, have become increasingly divided on the topic. A 2025 study from Lifeway Research, an evangelical firm, showed that 44% of evangelicals said they see recent immigrants as a drain on the country’s resources, while 43% see those immigrants as a threat to the safety of Americans. At the same time, the Trump administration crackdown on immigration has affected evangelical churches with immigrant congregations. 

Organizers said the prayer rally, held near the intersection of South Clark Street and Ida B. Wells Drive, was meant to draw attention to the steep decline in asylum requests being granted both in Chicago and nationwide. The Chicago Sun-Times reported earlier this fall that asylum approvals in Chicago have declined sharply during the second Trump administration. The numbers bear that out: In January 2025, more than 40% of cases were approved, according to data from the Deportation Data Project. That has dropped to 3.3% in 2026. A similar decline has occurred nationwide.

Immigration courts have seen large-scale turnover in the second Trump administration, with more than 100 immigration judges fired and replaced by new, often-inexperienced ones, The Washington Post reported. In April, the White House claimed that the “age of amnesty is over,” saying the administration had acted to replace judges who granted too many asylum requests.

“America’s asylum system was never intended to be used as a de facto amnesty program or a catch-all, get-out-of-deportation-free card,” a DHS spokesperson told RNS in an email.

Tara Beth Leach, pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran in Naperville, an evangelical church that brought a busload of members to the rally, said the tightening of asylum approvals has upset people in her church as well as directly affecting some parishioners and neighbors. 

“We have immigrant families in our own pews and in our own community that are seeking status. These are people we know by name,” she told RNS in an interview a few days before the rally. “I’m a pastor, not a policy expert, but I care about how people are treated.”

Leach said her church has worked with immigrants through World Relief’s Chicagoland office. Good Shepherd has also held a pair of immigration events over the past year, prompted by “Operation Midway Blitz,” when ICE ramped up enforcement in Chicago and in neighboring suburbs in the fall of 2025.

“It was happening in our backyard,” she said.

Ken Wiersum, a member of Good Shepherd, was among those at the rally. He said that changes in ICE enforcement have made the country less welcoming, something that clashes with his beliefs. Before Monday, he said, he had never been to a rally before.

“It seems like the right place to be,” he said.

Organizers are also concerned about what are known as “mega master” hearings, at which hundreds of immigration cases are scheduled during a three-hour court docket. That gives asylum seekers almost no time to plead their case, said a series of pastors who prayed during the rally.

“We are witnessing dignified pathways and processes disappear for our immigrant neighbors — people who are trying to follow the law,” said pastor and writer Sandra Van Opstal.

The rally alternated between prayers from pastors and small group prayers, with hymns like “This Little Light of Mine,” “They Will Know We Are Christians by Our Love” and “Raise a Hallelujah” sung as accompaniment.  Participants prayed for those facing asylum hearings and their families, as well as the judges overseeing asylum cases.

“Let justice roll, let dignity reign, let there be a fair day in court,” prayed Jonathan Brooks, pastor of Lawndale Community Church.

Paco Amador, pastor at New Life Community Church — Little Village, said that everyone in the asylum process deserves a fair day in court. He worries that is no longer happening and fears that immigrants are being scapegoated.

Amador, who works with immigrant congregations, said he was pleased to see Christians from different backgrounds come together. He said that the group gathered for prayer because that is what the Bible tells them to do.

“Whoever asks, they will get an answer,” Amador said, in paraphrasing a section of the Sermon on the Mount. “Whoever knocks, the door will be open. Whoever seeks, they will find. So we have gathered to pray. Yes, we can talk a lot, but ultimately, really, God is the one who can change anything in our nation.”