MAINE, USA — Selma, an asylum seeker from Angola, moved to Texas at the start of the pandemic and then to Maine in January 2022. She fears persecution if she returns because of a family member’s involvement in a human rights group.

“As a Christian, I was praying, and then God just gave me direction, which was Maine,” she said.

She joined a nondenominational Christian church in Portland right away, and she and her two children have been regular attendees ever since. After President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, her 12-year-old daughter asked if it was still safe to go to school.

As immigration enforcement efforts have increased dramatically this year, many migrants have also reckoned with whether it’s safe to go to places of worship, whether they’re congregants or faith leaders

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