After the uprisings of 2011 and coup of 2013, Egyptian emigration to the US increased dramatically, especially among Coptic Christians, due to both economic and political instability, as well as increased attacks against them and their places of worship. This paper explores the ways in which discrimination and violence against minority populations, in particular the Copts, are understood through modern secular governance (Asad 2003, Mahmood 2015), and how this is shaped between homeland and diaspora (Bernal 2006, Ghosh 1989). Based on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork between Upper Egypt and the New York-New Jersey area, this paper brings into conversation the current context of anti-Muslim rhetoric in the US and discussions on the persecution of Copts in Egypt. Typical images of the Coptic diaspora portray engagements of Copts with Islamophobic discourses and right-wing organizations as means to advance their cause for equal rights and an end to Christian persecution in Egypt (Haddad 2013, Yefet 2015). While these images are important to any discussion on the Coptic diaspora, this paper examines how discourses of persecution have been framed by various actors—including the Coptic Orthodox Church, Coptic rights activists, Coptic-American youth, and especially intra-Christian actors. Specifically, the paper describes how the Coptic Orthodox Church in the New York-New Jersey area has adapted to increased immigration from Egypt, and the ways this immigration has shaped the narratives of persecution. The image of Egypt for many new immigrants and Coptic-American youth is shaped by geopolitical conditions and American political culture. My focus for the first part of this paper is to tell stories that illuminate how that image is constructed and how it is discussed. Second, the paper discusses how that image has remolded Coptic communities in the United States, through their political stances and actions, and how these circulations of Copts between America and Upper Egypt, in particular, have affected inter-communal relations transnationally.