WASHINGTON (AP) — A group of top U.S. Catholic bishops and nuns on the front lines of the country’s immigration conflict have decried the Trump administration’s hard-line policies for tearing apart families, inciting fear and upending American church life.
While criticizing the federal government, the Catholic leaders also explained at a Thursday panel discussion at Georgetown University how they are supporting worried immigrants. With President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda and ramped up immigration enforcement, they said, many families are wary of taking their children to school, going to work or church for fear of being detained and deported.
“The way that the immigration policies are enforced these days are not only destabilizing the life of the particular immigrant, but whole families, businesses, the life of children, whole communities, neighborhoods,” said Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, of Washington, D.C. “What I’m seeing in people’s eyes, is pain and a deep confusion. … Where do we go from here if we’re not welcome.”
Adding to those fears is a change made at the start of Trump’s second term that gave immigration officers more leeway to make arrests at schools and houses of worship — long considered off limits. This is being challenged in court by teachers and faith groups.
“For me, it’s very personal because I was a stranger and you welcomed me,” said Menjivar-Ayala. He crossed the U.S. border illegally in 1990 after leaving his native El Salvador during the country’s civil war. Now a U.S. citizen, he became the first Salvadoran bishop in the United States.
Helping keep hope alive in struggling families is a critical part of providing support, said Sister Norma Pimentel, a leading migrant-rights activist along the U.S.-Mexico border who spoke on the panel. She runs Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, a respite center for beleaguered migrants in McAllen, Texas.
She recalled visiting immigrant families at a detention center in a “terrible condition,” and being moved to tears.
“I saw Border Patrol agents looking at us, and they, too, were moved and were crying,” she said. “When I walked out of there, the officer turned to me and said, ‘Thank you, sister, for helping us realize they’re human beings.’”
Department of Homeland Security officials have maintained there will be no safe spaces for those who are in the country illegally, have committed crimes, or tried to undermine immigration enforcement. They have consistently said their efforts are intended to safeguard public safety and national security.
Catholic leaders at odds with Trump over immigration
Catholic leaders follow the church’s core doctrine against abortion and same-sex marriage, priorities they share with many political conservatives. But they’ve been at odds with the Trump administration on immigration.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced the end of a half-century of partnerships with the federal government to serve refugees and migrant children, saying the “heartbreaking” decision followed the Trump administration’s abrupt halt to funding.
In February, the late Pope Francis also issued a major rebuke to the administration’s plans for mass deportations of migrants, warning that the forceful removal of people purely because of their illegal status deprives them of their inherent dignity.
At the panel, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski highlighted the contributions of immigrants to the country’s economy.
“If you ask people in agriculture, you ask in the service industry, you ask people in health care, you ask the people in the construction field, and they’ll tell you that some of their best workers are immigrants,” said Wenski, who has served on the USCCB’s migration committee. “Enforcement is always going to be part of any immigration policy, but we have to rationalize it and humanize it.”
Wenski joined the “Knights on Bikes” ministry, an initiative led by the Knights of Columbus that draws attention to the spiritual needs of people held at immigration detention centers, including the one in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” He recalled praying a rosary with the bikers in the scorching heat outside its walls. Days later, he got permission to celebrate Mass inside the facility.
“The fact that we invite these detainees to pray, even in this very dehumanizing situation, is a way of emphasizing and invoking their dignity,” he said. “More importantly that God has not forgotten them.”
Los Angeles archdiocese suffers after immigration raids
In Los Angeles County, the Trump administration’s ramped up arrests of people suspected of living in the country illegally has upended life for tens of thousands of people. About a third of the county’s 10 million residents are foreign-born, and many are now trying to live without being noticed.
Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez said on the panel that the fear-inducing effect of immigration raids lowered attendance at Mass, and affected valuable church programs that mostly serve immigrants. The archdiocese is helping those being detained and facing deportation with legal and financial assistance.
“People are really afraid of going out of their homes,” said Gomez, the first Latino to serve as USCCB president. “A lot of the priests are telling me here in the archdiocese that at least 30% of the people attending Mass are not coming anymore.”
Panelists warn of fallout from immigration crackdown
The panel, which included academics and legal experts, lamented the suffering of children separated from their parents. Legal expert Ashley Feasley, who is with Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law, noted the millions of children who are U.S. citizens and have parents and other family members in the country illegally.
“When we think about the level of enforcement that is starting, occurring, and will intensify … we have to think about these families. What will they do? How will they handle it if a parent gets detained?” Feasley said.
Trump has portrayed his federal law enforcement surge in Washington as focused on tackling crime. But data from the federal operation, analyzed by The Associated Press, shows that more than 40% of the arrests made over the monthlong operation were in fact related to immigration.
“The president says that he’s enforcing these policies to make our cities safer, but if immigrants, if people are afraid of interacting with law enforcement, with police, reporting crimes, obviously they’re going to become targets of crimes,” said Menjivar-Ayala.
“This is not going to help to make our streets, our communities safer.”
Ministering to immigrants at the border
Mark Seitz, the bishop of El Paso, Texas, said it is crucial to continue informing immigrant communities about their rights
“We don’t stop at praying,” Seitz, chair of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration, told the panel.
“Prayer moves us to action, and that’s what we ought to be doing — to abide by our support, our love, our accompaniment, by being present to people who’ve been terrorized by the actions of the government.”
At end of the panel, Gomez said it’s important to remember that the United States is a country of immigrants.
“I think we’ll have immigrant reform very soon. That’s my prayer and my dream — that we can get something done, finally, as a solution of these challenges,” he said.
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