STPC Letter to President Donald J Trump

 

NOT FOR PUBLICATION –
WE’RE GATHERING SIGNATORIES

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March [TBD], 2025

President Donald J. Trump
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Trump:

We celebrate the arrival of true and decisive leadership in the White House. As a large coalition of conservative human rights and religious freedom advocates, Save the Persecuted Christians and our partners are eager to work with your America First administration to combat escalating anti-Christian sentiment, discrimination, harassment, and persecution at home and abroad.

In America, your out-of-the-gate Executive Orders to stop the weaponization of the federal government to discriminate against American Christians, set up a Faith Office in the White House, end taxpayer-funded abortions, expand education options for families, recognize only two genders, and reject men in women’s sports is having great impact. Thank you.

You have also moved quickly to strengthen and reign in the U.S. Department of State (DOS) and unravel a massive web of deceit and corruption at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which you have rightly moved under the direction of Secretary of State Marco Rubio. We commend you, President Trump, for your commitment to accountability and effectiveness in America’s diplomatic service. As you know, countries that prioritize equal protection under the law for all citizens are natural allies for America, but those who have a tiered system of justice, such as authoritarian Communist countries and Islamic republics, are not.

With your first National Security Strategy released in December 2017, you elevated religious freedom as a national security priority. You defeated ISIS in short order. And, unlike other silent Western Civilization leaders, you highlighted the plight of persecuted Christians at the United Nations and in the White House. You went to bat for the release of American pastor Andrew Brunson, who was unjustly detained in Turkey. You gathered world leaders for the very first International Ministerial on Religious Freedom. And you rightly designated the deadliest country for Christians, Nigeria, as a Country of Particular Concern, which, tragically, the Biden administration reversed. Toward the end of your first term, on June 2, 2020, with Executive Order 13926, you directed the Secretary of State to prioritize international religious freedom in the planning and implementation of United States foreign policy and the foreign assistance programs of the Department of State, USAID and other federal agencies.

As you enter your second term, the persecution of Christians worldwide once again is skyrocketing.

According to the 2025 World Watch List from Open Doors, an annual ranking of the 50 countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution, more than 380 million suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith. In 2018, that number was 215 million. That’s an increase of 57 percent over eight years. Sharia supremacists are the root cause of much of this suffering.

We have hope that with the new Trump administration, we will finally begin to see these numbers decrease year-over-year. Toward that end, we recommend the following executive actions:

1. Continue to advance Religious Freedom as an America First national security and foreign policy priority. Your 2020 Executive Order on International Religious Freedom (EO 13926) was not rescinded and is still in force. It should be reiterated as a whole-of-government strategy and fully implemented. Congress should be urged to give it statutory authority.
2. Fully implement the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, as amended by the 2016 Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act.
   1. The Secretary of State must adhere strictly to the law, naming Countries of Particular Concern based solely on evidence of religious freedom violations and whether they meet the legal threshold.
      • The 1998 International Religious Freedom Act doesn’t provide for other considerations beyond these facts, though it allows the president to weigh other factors when determining presidential actions.
   2. Cease the routine use of waivers that exempt Countries of Particular Concern from the presidential actions mandated by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act. Instead, as the law requires, targeted Global Magnitsky visa and financial sanctions should consistently be levied on “foreign government officials responsible for especially severe violations of religious freedom.”
      • Whenever feasible, work to secure a formal, enforceable agreement with a foreign government identified as a Country of Particular Concern, requiring that government to stop—or take meaningful steps to address and eliminate—specific actions, policies, or practices that violate religious freedom, as permitted under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. Waivers should only be given to such a country and its leaders if its government has signed such an agreement. Additionally, the President could notify any government that meets the criteria for designation as a Country of Particular Concern, but has not yet been officially labeled as such, that the United States will designate it unless it enters into a binding agreement.
      • Make sure that embassy staff in the Country of Particular Concern understands what the designation entails.
      • Focus on collaborative efforts with foreign governments to enhance conditions, especially when those governments show a willingness to cooperate.
      • Prohibit the Executive Branch from engaging with a registered lobbyist if its client country has been designated a Country of Particular Concern.
   3. Quickly appoint an America First Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. The post of AAL for IRF can be a key contributor to US foreign policy advancing US values worldwide.
   4. Appoint a Special Advisor on International Religious Freedom to the National Security Council staff at the director level within the President’s Executive Office, just as you did in your first term in office.
      • The 1998 International Religious Freedom Act amended the National Security Act of 1947 to express Congress’s intent for this role.
      • The 2016 Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act (PL 114-281) reinforced this expectation.
      • In the 25 years since the passage of IRFA, this position has been filled only once, by you, in February 2020.
3. Protect Americans from “Enemies Within.” Designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Identify and designate non-profit organizations acting as influence groups raising support for the Muslim Brotherhood. The last Administration’s foreign policy showed that sympathizers with Muslim extremist groups intent on overthrowing the US governmental system are operating inside of our government. End the infiltration of Muslim Brotherhood apologists and operatives working within our federal government.
4. Issue a Memorandum to resolve the R1 religious workers’ visa backlog. The backlog for religious worker visas has been growing since April 2023, when the Biden administration changed certain visa application processes. The backlog affects religious workers’ ability to serve U.S. faith communities and can lead to clergy shortages. In April 2023, the Department of State (DOS) stopped separating out immigrant visas for those born in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Instead, the DOS merged applicants from those countries into the same pool as R-1 religious workers. Meanwhile, that pool’s annual cap for green cards remained at 10,000. Religious organizations are feeling the strain, with disruptions in pastoral care and a potential shortage of clergy. This exemplifies Public Law No: 114-281 (12/16/2016), also known as the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act, in which Members of Congress state that “a foreign country’s practice of routinely denying visa applications for religious workers can be indicative of a poor state of religious freedom in that country.” In this case, the poor state of religious freedom was the Biden Administration causing harm to American faith communities.
5. Make allowance for those seeking asylum in the U.S. due to violent, anti-Christian persecution to come to the U.S. and stay here while they are in danger.
6. Commit to publicly addressing religious freedom violations in meetings with foreign state leaders. To this day, our colleagues in Nigeria refer to your meeting with then President Muhammadu Buhari when you asked him in front of the media about the suffering Christians in that country. That simple action had a great impact. For a time, attacks on Christian communities in the Middle Belt decreased, and Nigerian leaders were taken by surprise and for a brief moment, the violence decreased. Unfortunately, the Nigerian government’s ultimate response was to flood Capitol Hill with lobbyists claiming the intractable jihadist terrorism is simply the outcome of climate change or farmer-herder clashes. Thankfully, we know better and so do you. Meanwhile, the killings continue unabated.
7. Country-specific concerns and recommendations for designations and other executive actions are included in the attached appendix.

We also request you give Presidential support for the following Congressional Actions:

1. A bill in Congress to Protect Holy Sites. (Draft in progress, soon to be introduced)
2. A Congressional resolution recognizing religious freedom as a fundamental right (Needs to be reintroduced. 118th Congress, S.Res.569, Coons, Lankford, Kaine, and Tillis)
3. Support a Congressional bill to ban lobbying for the Chinese Communist Party (needs to be drafted with bipartisan support)
4. Support Representative Chris Smith’s H.Res.220 119^th Congress (2025-2026) “Expressing the sense of Congress regarding the need to designate Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern for engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, and for other purposes.”

ADDITIONAL RESOURCE:
Save the Persecuted Christians Areas and Countries Situation Reports and Recommendations for Action are available here. These reports and recommendations will be updated regularly, so watch this space. | https://savethepersecutedchristians.org/topline-area-country-sit-reps-and-recommended-actions/

Sincerely,

Frank J. Gaffney, President                            Dede Laugesen, Executive Director
Save the Persecuted Christians                   Save the Persecuted Christians

With Coalition Partners and Friends:

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Disclaimer: The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect
those of each member of the Save the Persecuted Christians Coalition.