The Rev. Juan Carlos Calderón voted for Donald Trump in 2024 because he believed the president shared his Christian values and would focus immigration enforcement on criminals. Now, after church members were detained, families were separated, and attendance and donations declined at his Florida congregation, Calderón says he was wrong about Trump's deportation agenda and has taken a second full-time job to support himself.
Calderón, a Venezuelan-born US citizen who leads Un Nuevo Comienzo, an Assemblies of God church in Lake Worth Beach, said he had expected the Trump Admin to target gang members and immigrants who committed offences such as driving under the influence, rather than people without criminal records. 'I was really wrong,' Calderón said in Spanish. 'They're not looking for criminals.'
