Two Coloradans are in the nation’s capital this week on a mission seeking more action by Congress and the White House to help victims of genocide in the Middle East.

Father Andre Mahanna, pastor of St. Rafka Maronite Catholic Church in Lakewood, and his mission’s political liaison, Dede Laugesen, of Monument, are meeting with members of the Trump administration and Congress.

“We’re going to support President Trump in his desire to give preference to religious minorities suffering from the actions of ISIS, which has targeted them for genocide,” said Laugesen, a political strategist who is also prominent in Colorado’s Catholic community.

“We want to garner support from Congress and the administration to support President Trump on this effort. We also want a statement of hope and mercy from President Trump regarding the millions of immigrants and refugees living peacefully in the United States who may be undocumented but have committed no crimes.”

(Disclosure: Laugesen is married to Wayne Laugesen, editorial page editor at our news affiliate, the Colorado Springs Gazette.)

Mahanna and Laugesen have a packed agenda. They’ll help draft a joint congressional resolution that calls for giving priority to religious minority refugees from the Middle East. They’re going to ask for a presidential appointment of a special envoy to religious leaders of the Middle East and North Africa. They’ll also deliver congressional leaders and White House officials a letter from the Worldwide Biblical Values Coalition, a group of Hispanic, black and liturgical pastors and clergy representing hundreds of thousands of Coloradans and millions nationwide. The letter seeks a statement from President Trump to ease deportation fears among undocumented refugees and immigrants who have committed no crimes.

Mahanna grew up as a Catholic in Lebanon, escaping persecution and death by living in caves with his family and others. Known throughout Colorado as “Abouna,” Mahanna is Director of the Office of Ecumenism and Inter-religious Relations and Dialogue for the Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon; founder and director of St. Rafka’s Mission of Hope and Mercy to Save the Christian Middle East, and USA President of the Vatican Associated Office of the Apostolic Union of Clergy.

Trump already made clear in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network earlier this year his desire to give priority to Christian refugees from the Middle East. The statement was criticized as religious discrimination but was not in fact part of his executive order on refugees. The order actually only mentioned religious “minorities” – taken as a reference to Christians, Shi’a Muslims and Yazidis in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and other parts of the Middle East as well as Africa.

Congress passed a unanimous House resolution a year ago Tuesday, by a vote of 393-0, recognizing as genocide the persecution of Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities by ISIS. President Barack Obama’s state department followed up, with a statement by then-Secretary of State John Kerry that said ISIS “is genocidal by self-proclamation, by ideology, and by actions.”

Laugesen said she and Mahanna want the United States to push for refugee safe zones throughout the Middle East.

“The only way to save Christians in the region right now is for them to leave their homelands and become refugees,” Laugesen said. “They are being raped, pillaged, murdered or sold into slavery. They are being literally crucified, and babies and young children are being beheaded.”

Father Mahanna believes religious liberty will be doomed in the United States if it is not preserved in the Middle East, the homeland of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

“This is not a problem that we can ignore because it is over there,” Father Mahanna said. “When they are done destroying it over there, we will be next.”