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Immigration Ministry
St. Martin’s Immigration Ministry dates to 2016 when the church began helping refugee families resettle in Philadelphia. First came a Syrian family who arrived to escape the Syrian civil war. Then came others from Ukraine and Afghanistan. Because these families qualified for and obtained refugee status, they can legally live and work permanently in the United States.
Today, the ministry has expanded to include not just refugees, but also immigrants who are already in the United States but who lack permanent legal status. Many of these immigrants are seeking asylum because they face persecution at home based on their race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or political opinions. Others have never been convicted of a violent crime and have led productive lives in the United States for decades.
In carrying out Jesus’ call to welcome the stranger, the Immigration Ministry sponsors a variety of activities to support all immigrants. These include charitable giving and fundraising; direct service through volunteer work; and advocacy on the local, state, and national level.
In 2025, when President Trump’s administration largely ended the federal refugee program and cut off funding for refugee resettlement, the Immigration Ministry stepped up to sponsor and financially support an Afghan family of seven with refugee status. Because the father’s job had helped the U.S. military in Afghanistan, the family risked retaliation after the Taliban took control.
The Immigration Ministry partnered with other groups to raise more than $35,000 to help the family start a new life in Philadelphia. Volunteers have helped the family find housing, English-language classes, job training, medical care, and schools.
After the Trump administration issued an executive order calling for the mass deportation of all unauthorized immigrants in the United States, the Immigration Ministry expanded its reach.
It joined with other faith organizations to protest overzealous enforcement of immigration law by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); organized a well-attended worship service led by St. Martin’s rector outside the ICE office in Center City Philadelphia; increased its charitable giving to the New Sanctuary Movement, the city’s only immigrant-led interfaith organization dedicated to immigrant justice; submitted testimony to Philadelphia City Council to codify into law Philadelphia’s status as an immigrant-welcoming city and to institute other legal protections for immigrants living or working in Philadelphia; and helped to fund the Defender Association of Philadelphia as it launched a program to free immigrants illegally detained by ICE without a court hearing.
Through the Immigration Ministry, parishioners of St. Martin’s have volunteered to accompany immigrants to ICE appointments and court hearings, and volunteers were organized to help set up apartments in a former convent converted into temporary housing for immigrant women and children.
The Immigration Ministry partners with many other organizations to carry out its work, including HIAS PA, the New Sanctuary Movement, the Northwest Philadelphia Immigration Network, the Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, and other faith-based groups, including the Sisters of Saint Joseph.
Get Involved!
You are welcome at our monthly Zoom meetings on the first Monday of each month. Contact co-leaders Huntly Collins and Emily Law (both in the parish directory) with any questions.
