USCC appeals to Supreme Court to uphold human dignity of non-citizens

 

U.S. bishops urge Supreme Court to rule against indefinite detention of noncitizens

The bishops argue that strong due process protections are consistent with American principles and good governance in accordance with Catholic teaching.

Detainees stand by a window inside the federal immigration center at Delaney Hall, where ICE is housing detained immigrants, on May 26, 2026, in Newark, New Jersey. | Credit: Adam Gray/Getty Images

By Tyler Arnold

September 9, 2026

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule in favor of stronger due process rights for noncitizens who are facing deportation proceedings and against indefinite detention without judicial review.

In a legal filing to the Supreme Court, the USCCB and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC) argued that stronger due process protections would help uphold the human dignity of noncitizens and safeguard the common good, based on Catholic teaching.

The bishops sent the petition in relation to the ongoing case Genalo v. Keisy G.M., in which a U.S. permanent resident from the Dominican Republic argues that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) violated his Fifth Amendment right to due process.

Keisy G.M., whose full name is not public, was detained for 21 months. Although he did appear before a judge, he did not receive a bond hearing to determine whether he could be released on bond.

In spite of his permanent residency status, he faced deportation proceedings after he was convicted of felonious assault. He was later pardoned by the State of New York, ending the threat of deportation.

Dignity of the human person

In their legal brief, the bishops argued that due process protections are consistent with the law, American tradition, and Catholic teaching, saying “executive detention has never been wholly insulated from judicial scrutiny,” adding that “this accords with Catholic social teaching, which recognizes both the legitimate authority of the state and the dignity of the individual.”

“Indefinite confinement without individualized review by a neutral tribunal is anathema to our constitutional system and the ordered liberty it enshrines,” the bishops said. “The consequences of abandoning that system are severe and concrete.”

“Prolonged detention can cost people their jobs, homes, health, and the ability to participate meaningfully in their own legal proceedings,” they said. “It can separate parents from children, destabilize entire families, and inflict harms that cannot be undone by eventual release. Although such detention may at times be necessary to further important state interests, such as ensuring public safety, it must be subject to justification before a neutral tribunal.”

In the court filing, they cited Pope John XXIII’s 1963 encyclical Pacem in Terris, which teaches that “the common good is best safeguarded when personal rights and duties are guaranteed.”

Quoting from the document, they said authorities must “ensure that these rights are recognized, respected, co-ordinated, defended and promoted, and that each individual is enabled to perform his duties more easily” because “safeguard[ing] the inviolable rights of the human person” and “facilitat[ing] the performance of his duties” is “the principal duty of every public authority.”

The bishops also quoted Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See’s secretary for relations with states, from his statement during the general debate at the opening of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly’s high‑level week.

In his statement, Gallagher said the “principles of equality before the law, accountability, the equitable application of the law, the separation of [four] powers, legal certainty, due process, the prevention of arbitrariness, as well as transparency in both procedural and legal matters, must always be observed.”

“Those principles,” the bishops continued, “are effectuated by procedures that require the government to justify significant deprivations of liberty based on individualized circumstances rather than categorical assumptions.”

Oral arguments for the case are scheduled for Oct. 13. Keisy G.M. is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other civil liberties organizations.

Cardinals Cupich and Tobin spend Ash Wednesday with families of those detained by ICE or deported

 

'God does not need papers': Cardinals spend Ash Wednesday with ICE detainees, their families

by Camillo Barone

Chicago Cardinal Blase J. Cupich places ashes on the forehead of an attendee at the Ash Wednesday Mass near Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish, Feb. 18, 2026, in Melrose Park, a Chicago suburb. (Courtesy of Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership/Gordon Mayer)

February 18, 2026

Share on BlueskyShare on FacebookShare on TwitterEmail to a friendPrint

Standing outdoors on a cold Ash Wednesday evening, Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago framed Lent as a public reckoning with fear, invisibility and faith lived under pressure in the immigrant community. 

As ashes were prepared and families gathered near Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Melrose Park, Cupich's homily drew a straight line between the ancient ritual of dust and the modern reality of detention, deportation and family separation.

"God does not need papers to know who or where you are," he said. "The world may look at your legal status, but God looks at your heart."

The outdoor Mass and community procession marked the start of Lent for thousands of Catholics organized by the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership, or CSPL, and the Scalabrinian Missionaries. It came days after a federal judge ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to allow clergy access to the Broadview ICE detention facility for Ash Wednesday services.

More than 3,000 people — including relatives of those detained or deported — attended the Mass and walked the streets of Melrose Park in a peaceful procession. Families affected by immigration enforcement were among the first to receive ashes from Cupich, in a highly symbolic reversal of the marking and tracking many say defines their daily lives.

Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, speaks at St. Lucy's Church in Newark Jan. 13, 2025, during an interfaith gathering of religious leaders committed to supporting immigrants facing the threat of mass deportation by the Trump administration. (OSV News/Gregory A. Shemitz)

Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, as well, began Ash Wednesday by celebrating Masses inside Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, where he met with women detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, emphasizing the church's responsibility to uphold human dignity in places of confinement. Tobin said starting the day with detainees was his priority before later celebrating Mass at St. Patrick's Pro-Cathedral.

Accompanied by auxiliary bishops from the Archdiocese of Newark, Tobin told Religion News Service that the Masses inside the facility were both sorrowful and marked by courage.

Cupich, in his homily, said: "This too is a day for those who are made to feel like dust, dust that can be swept away or treated as if they do not belong. It is a day for those who work with the dust of the earth in construction, in cleaning, in harvesting the crops of the fields, all to support their families. Yet remember from the beginning it is dust that God uses to create humanity."

Cupich's Mass was not a procession to Broadview, as previous public witness events have been, but its location and timing were inseparable from the legal and moral struggle over access to the detention center. On Feb. 12, U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman issued a preliminary injunction ordering DHS to permit clergy to minister to detainees on Ash Wednesday, writing: "The court finds that the government has substantially burdened plaintiffs' exercise of religion."

The ruling followed a lawsuit filed in November by the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership challenging DHS restrictions on prayer and pastoral access.

The group argued that its own religious freedom rights were violated under the First Amendment, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000. The court noted that DHS failed to demonstrate a compelling government interest or that its policies were the least restrictive means available.

Late Wednesday morning, DHS notified the group that it would comply with Gettleman's judicial injunction, requiring federal officials to permit a small delegation of clergy and women religious access to the Broadview ICE facility on Ash Wednesday.

Fr. Leandro Fossá, pastor at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish where Cupich celebrated Mass, was one of the religious in the delegation that entered the ICE detention center at 3 p.m. CST.

"The importance of the Mass with the people, and then the possibility of going inside the ICE detention, is because we want to guarantee the freedom of religion of this country and the possibility for every person to receive spiritual assistance from their religion," Fossá told NCR.

The choice of the parish in Melrose Park was not casual. The west suburban parish is in a neighborhood with a high concentration of families affected by deportation. In September 2025, an undocumented Mexican immigrant father of two, Silverio Villegas González, was fatally shot by ICE agents, an event that shook the parish and prompted novenas, memorial Masses and sustained organizing.

"We built a life together. He worked; he took care of us. He was a good person," Villegas' girlfriend said in an October NCR interview. She's been assisted since then by the parish community.

"We Catholics are moved by hope, despite the difficulties, despite the fear of many who don't go to work without measuring the consequences, many children who go to school and have anxiety because they don't know if — when they go back from school — their parents are going to be home," said Fossá.

Over the past year, the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership has organized a series of highly visible religious activities: a people's Mass outside the Great Lakes Naval Station, a Eucharistic procession at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish to grieve Villegas and multiple processions and Masses outside the Broadview facility calling for pastoral care and Communion inside.

During that same period, according to the coalition's lawsuit, ICE has denied access to advocates and clergy, while reports of deteriorating and inhumane conditions inside the facility have increased. Illinois elected officials were also denied access, according to media reports.

As ashes were imposed outside the Melrose Park parish, Cupich addressed the fear many families carry. "Today many of you live in fear of being marked and tracked, careful about names, identities, and lists," he said. "But today, you step forward freely to receive this mark, the sign of the cross."

He described the cross traced in ash as "more permanent than any government identity or record," telling worshippers, "It is a declaration that no matter what laws change, no matter what politicians say, and no matter what uncertainties you face, you are children of God."

For Fossá, that message has had a tangible effect on parishioners since the start of 2026. "We see hope, and many people say, 'Father, we know that we don't stand alone, and we know that those who do injustice will have to answer to God.' "

"We also see people that are not afraid. They know of the possible consequences, but they are not afraid because they know that they are not alone," he said.

West Virginia Bishop warns Catholics that God will judge if we do not affirm the dignity of all immigrants, regardless of status

 

West Virginia bishop warns on immigration: ‘The final judge of our actions is God’

written by Gina Christian

Bishop Mark E. Brennan of Wheeling-Charleston, W.Va., is pictured in a 2019 photo at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Wheeling. Bishop Brennan issued a statement July 31, 2025, addressing the immigration crisis and calling people in his state to "pray for the courage to do the right thing." (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)

OSV News) — Amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, Bishop Mark E. Brennan of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, is urging the people of his state to “affirm the humanity of all immigrants, regardless of legal status.” But he also called on every person to “pray for the courage to do the right thing,” including those tasked with carrying out the nation’s laws, warning that God will judge each person by their actions. 

The bishop released a July 31 “Statement on the Current Immigration Crisis,” which was posted to the diocese’s Facebook page.

The three-page document comes as the Department of Homeland Security works to fulfill President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign promise, with immigration enforcement actions including violent takedowns, increased arrest quotas, third-country deportations and the construction of more migrant detention facilities modeled on the controversial Alligator Alcatraz facility set up in the inhospitable terrain of the Florida Everglades.

“We are a nation built on the backs of men and women who came from other countries, whether freely or in chains,” Bishop Brennan said in his statement. “Now we see our government adopting harsh measures to deport as many immigrants as possible, often without distinguishing between true criminals and law-abiding persons.”

The bishop noted that some had told him they supported efforts to “install order at the southern border” while preventing violent offenders from entering the nation. But he also said they told him that they “didn’t expect this wholesale assault on the majority of immigrants, who work hard, are raising their families and live peacefully in our communities.”

“You expected a laser beam approach, not a floodlight,” said Bishop Brennan.

Catholic Faith Sheds Light on Immigration Crisis

Bishop Brennan said the Catholic faith sheds light on the current immigration crisis. He referenced how the Gospels attest that Mary and Joseph had to flee Israel, their homeland, for Roman-ruled Egypt in order to save Jesus, the newborn savior and son of God, from falling into the murderous hands of King Herod the Great. The bishop also noted Jesus’ own words in Matthew 25 to those he invites to join him in paradise at the Last Judgement: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”

“Our Church looks at the person, not his or her legal status, and, following Christ’s teaching and example, reaches out to help the immigrant,” Bishop Brennan continued. “A person is more important than legal status.”

He noted that “even prisoners in jail are fed, clothed and have their health problems addressed, at least in well-run prisons.” The bishop emphasized that the diocese “will continue to advocate for and assist our immigrant brothers and sisters in our parishes and through Catholic Charities.”

Catholic social teaching on immigration balances three interrelated principles — the right of persons to migrate in order to sustain their lives and those of their families, the right of a country to regulate its borders and control immigration, and a nation’s duty to regulate its borders with justice and mercy.

Government Policy Incoherence on Immigration

Bishop Brennan said that entering the U.S. without legal permission is typically a misdemeanor — “a crime but a lesser one, on the level with loitering, public intoxication and shoplifting” — that only becomes a felony following deportation and unauthorized re-entry. 

Bishop Brennan indicated the government’s treatment toward migrants is incoherent. He noted it is expelling “millions of workers upon whom the economy depends,” while breaking up families of immigrants who typically marry younger and have more children than the average American couple, at the very moment the U.S. fertility rate has plunged below population replacement levels. 

He noted his own state is already suffering this population decline. West Virginia is one of 17 states, according to U.S. census data, where deaths now outnumber births. 

“The main problem is that our immigration laws discourage legal immigration,” he said, unless a prospective immigrant is a “celebrity or a person with a special skill our government wants.”

He pointed to the years-long wait experienced by immigrants as they navigate “the complicated and expensive immigration process,” often stymied by U.S. immigration quotas that favor some nations over others.

“Some people simply cannot wait for the legal immigration process to slowly and painfully unfold,” said Bishop Brennan. “They could be killed for their religion or political views or see their children starve to death before they are granted a visa to come here legally; so, they come anyway because they are desperate.”

Both Political Parties ‘Have Failed Us’

The U.N. Refugee Agency noted that by the end of 2024 more than 123 million people worldwide — one in every 67 persons on Earth — had been forced to flee their homes due to persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and instability.

According to Pew Research Center, an estimated 11 million migrants were living and working in the U.S. without legal authorization in 2022, the year with the most recent available data, a figure still below the peak of 12.2 million from 2007.

Bishop Brennan said that both of the two U.S. major political parties “have avoided dealing seriously with immigration reform,” and “have benefited by keeping immigration a live issue in their campaigns.”

“Our politicians have failed us,” said Bishop Brennan.

Yet, he said, referencing the biblical story of Cain and Abel, “We are our brother’s and sister’s keepers.”

But he also said people must act on Christian principles, particularly in light of Jesus Christ’s commands in the Gospels to “love your neighbor as yourself” and “do under others as you would have them do unto you.”

To that end, he stressed the importance of prayer, outreach and action in upholding the dignity of immigrants, especially speaking up to counter “grossly inaccurate talk about undocumented immigrants being uniformly criminal.” He also recommended contacting public officials to urge “immigration enforcement to be less cruel and more focused on violent criminals.”

Faithful Urged to Remember History, Pray for Courage

But Bishop Brennan also exhorted the faithful to “remember our history,” including the refusal of many to comply with the nation’s Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The federal law required local law enforcement to arrest African Americans who had escaped slavery while forbidding U.S. citizens, on pain of ruinous fines (equivalent to $41,000 today) and six months imprisonment, to assist such individuals.

“It is Catholic teaching that an unjust law does not bind in conscience,” said the bishop. “But one must be willing to accept the consequences of civil disobedience. … We must pray for the courage to do the right thing.”

The bishop then said, “I encourage even those whose official duty is to enforce the current administration’s immigration policies to consider whether a specific action is morally justified.

“I recognize that they have sworn to uphold the law. Yet the manner in which a law is enforced matters,” Bishop Brennan said. “Those acting on the government’s behalf cannot escape personal responsibility for an unjust action with the excuse that it was ordered by their superiors. That defense was not allowed during the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals at the end of World War II.”

Bishop Brennan made clear that “what has been reported about excesses in immigration enforcement does not approach the horror of Nazi treatment of prisoners.” Nevertheless, he emphasized, “the principle of personal responsibility for one’s actions remains the same.”

Martyrs Remind All that God, Not Government, is ‘Final Judge’

He acknowledged that “challenging a superior’s unjust or cruel order risks retaliation, so the degree of injustice a government agent perceives in such an order must be weighed against the potential for severe repercussions against the agent.”

“Still,” he said, “we should all keep in mind that the final judge of our actions is God. Our Church would have no martyrs if the highest good was to preserve one’s life. Some things are worth taking a principled stand for.”

Bishop Brennan asked, “How would God judge actions that pull a man away from his wife and children in order to deport him? How would He judge arresting a person just because ‘he looks like an immigrant?’ How does He look at a large, rich nation that turns away the world’s poor and suffering?”

According to the church’s teaching in Catechism of the Catholic Church, “The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin.”

“Our government’s own inaction is the main reason why many oppressed and struggling people feel obliged to enter our country without legal documents,” said Bishop Brennan. “Now our government is overreacting by trying to force them out. We Catholics must welcome the stranger and feed and clothe him.”

 

Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina.

Archbishop Jose Gomez: stop mass deportations, judge each case on its merits

 

Archbishop of Los Angeles criticizes mass deportations: ‘Judge each case on its merits’

Los Angeles Archbishop José Gómez. | Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

By Tyler Arnold

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 19, 2025 / 18:53 pm

In an op-ed criticizing the current U.S. administration’s mass deportation efforts and immigration raids, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gómez urged the federal government instead to take a case-by-case approach on how it handles immigrants who are in the country illegally.

Gómez, who is himself an immigrant from Mexico and a naturalized citizen of the United States, penned the op-ed in the archdiocese-run Angelus News, in which he argued that the country needs “a new national conversation about immigration.”

According to Gómez, the conversation should be one that is “realistic and makes necessary moral and practical distinctions about those in our country illegally.”

The archbishop wrote that he is “deeply disturbed by the reports of federal agents detaining people in public places, apparently without showing warrants or evidence that those they are taking into custody are in the country illegally,” which he argued is “causing panic in our parishes and communities.”

“People are staying home from Mass and work, parks and stores are empty, the streets in many neighborhoods are silent,” Gómez indicated. “Families are staying behind locked doors, out of fear.”

Although the archbishop said “we may agree” that the previous administration in Washington “went too far in not securing our borders” and allowed “far too many people to enter our country without vetting,” he contended that the Trump administration “has offered no immigration policy beyond the stated goal of deporting thousands of people each day.”

“A great nation can take the time and care to make distinctions and judge each case on its merits,” the archbishop wrote.

Gómez stated that deportations for “known terrorists and violent criminals” are proper and that “we can tighten border security” and work to help employers ensure “the legal status of their employees.”

The archbishop went on to call for reforming the legal immigration system “to ensure that our nation has the skilled workers it needs” and maintains a “commitment to uniting families.” He further argued the government “should restore our moral commitments to providing asylum and protective status to genuine refugees and endangered populations.”

In addition, Gómez wrote that the solution should include a way for people “who have been in our country for many years” to obtain legal status. He noted that two-thirds of immigrants who are in the country illegally have been here for more than a decade and some were brought here as small children.

“The vast majority of ‘illegal aliens’ are good neighbors, hardworking men and women, people of faith,” the archbishop wrote. “They are making important contributions to vital sectors of the American economy: agriculture, construction, hospitality, health care, and more. They are parents and grandparents, active in our communities, charities, and churches.”

Gómez, who has been critical of the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans since the president took office, published the June 17 op-ed amid ongoing protests against immigration enforcement raids in Los Angeles, the country’s second most populous city. 

The protests started on June 6 after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested more than 40 immigrants in Los Angeles who were in the country illegally.

In an interview with CNA, Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge who is now resident fellow in law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), disputed some of the archbishop’s characterizations of the Trump administration’s deportation efforts. CIS, which refers to itself as a “low-immigration, pro-immigrant” think tank, has been closely aligned with many of the Trump administration’s immigration initiatives.

Arthur, who is Catholic, noted that ICE arrested fewer than 50 people in Los Angeles on June 6 in a city where there are more than 900,000 immigrants who are in the country illegally. He noted that the arrests represented .004% of that population.

As Arthur sees it, the ICE raids in Los Angeles were focused on “businesses that are exploiting workers” and “individuals who have criminal histories.”

“Respectfully, I think that the bishop is working off of a misinformed belief of what’s happening,” Arthur said.

“Many of these reports are overblown,” he said. “Some of them are erroneous and some of them are just downright lies.”

Arthur argued that “statements like this feed the very panic that he’s attempting to address,” asserting that “I haven’t seen that there have been massive sweeps of individuals in the United States.” 

Since President Donald Trump assumed office five months ago, ICE has deported more than 100,000 immigrants who were in the country illegally, according to the White House. The administration has also sought to encourage those in the country illegally to self-deport as well. CIS estimates that there are nearly 15 million immigrants in the country illegally.

Various Bishops response to the immigration orders of President Trump

 

Here’s how U.S. bishops have responded to Trump’s immigration orders

Migrants walk alongside the railroad tracks after dismounting from the “La Bestia” train, which they rode through Mexico to reach the Mexico-U.S. border near Chihuahua, Mexico, on Sept. 27, 2025. | Credit: David Peinado Romero/Shutterstock

By Jonah McKeown

CNA Staff, Jan 30, 2025 / 18:25 pm

Since last week, Catholic bishops across the country have publicly responded to President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders on immigration, with many calling for a more comprehensive and humane approach to immigration policy that respects the dignity of migrants and refugees. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, newly empowered to make arrests at places like churches and schools without needing to seek a superior’s approval, have reportedly already begun ramping up arrests in some major cities after Trump promised “the largest deportation operation in American history” focusing primarily on “the most dangerous criminals.” 

Trump’s other first-day orders, following through on numerous campaign promises, included a declaration of a national emergency at the southern U.S.-Mexico border, a reinstatement of the controversial “Remain in Mexico” border policy from his previous term, and a designation of drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations.”

Another Trump-signed order set in motion a process to end birthright citizenship for individuals born within U.S. territory irrespective of the legal status of their parents, though a judge has already blocked that order amid a significant legal challenge led by a coalition of states

The Catholic Church teaches that countries, especially wealthier ones, should try to welcome migrants “to the extent they are able” but that nations also have the right to regulate migration.

Trump’s immigration plans, many now coming to fruition, have attracted criticism from Catholic leaders at the national level, with U.S. bishops’ conference president Archbishop Timothy Broglio saying Jan. 22 that “some provisions” of the immigration orders are “deeply troubling and will have negative consequences, many of which will harm the most vulnerable among us.” 

Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ committee on migration, on Jan. 23 decried “sweeping generalizations to denigrate any group, such as describing all undocumented immigrants as ‘criminals’ or ‘invaders’ to deprive them of protection under the law.” Doing so, he wrote, “is an affront to God, who has created each of us in his own image.”

Many individual bishops’ statements have been addressed directly to immigrants, seeking to offer words of encouragement and support and assurances that the Church welcomes them. 

The Catholic bishops of Michigan in a recent statement expressed concern over “mass deportations and harmful rhetoric that broadly demeans our immigrant brothers and sisters.” They pledged “unyielding support and respect for the human dignity of all migrant people” and urged elected officials to support policies that keep immigrant families safe and united. 

The Michigan bishops clarified, however, that Catholic teaching on immigration rejects the idea of completely “open borders” in favor of a balanced approach that prioritizes both border security and compassionate welcome. They called for a “humane immigration system that welcomes refugees and immigrants by providing a fair pathway to citizenship.”

The bishops of Maryland released a joint statement Jan. 27 to express their solidarity with immigrants and recommitting to advocating for policies that protect rights and uphold their dignity. Quoting Pope Francis, they called for people to see in every migrant “not ‘a problem to be solved but ... brothers and sisters to be welcomed, respected, and loved.’”

“The Church has always been a home for those in search of refuge and peace, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to welcome the stranger and embrace the vulnerable,” the Maryland bishops wrote. 

Texas is at the epicenter of the immigration debate due to its lengthy and highly contested border with Mexico. The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, criticizing the use of sweeping generalizations to refer to immigrants, stated that the bishops of Texas “will continue to work with governmental officials and other people of goodwill to implement policies that recognize the dignity of every person, prioritize family unity, and address the root causes of forced migration while respecting the right and responsibility of our country to secure its borders.” 

The Texas bishops said they “urge President Trump to pivot from these enforcement-only policies to just and merciful solutions.”

The bishops of Colorado, another state with a large Latino population, said the rhetoric of mass deportations has “created genuine fear for many we shepherd.” The bishops committed “to walking in solidarity with you, our migrant brothers, sisters, and families” and advocated for “comprehensive immigration reform... that respects human dignity, protects the vulnerable, and ensures safety and security for all people.” 

The bishops of New Mexico had in December articulated a strongly worded statement against a policy of mass deportation of unauthorized immigrants, saying such a policy “will not fix the broken immigration system but, rather, create chaos, family separation, and the traumatization of children.” They called for Trump to instead “return to bipartisan negotiations to repair the U.S. immigration system.”

Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, building on the New Mexico bishops’ earlier statement, said on Jan. 21 that “overly simplistic solutions” to the immigration issue don’t tend to work and that comprehensive reform is needed. 

He further stated that as Catholics, “we firmly believe that all human beings are children of God, brothers and sisters created in God’s image.” 

“We must not treat [migrants] as mere pawns in a game of chess nor politicize them. Instead, we must place their needs and concerns at the forefront of our debates, considering both the citizens of our nation and those seeking refuge at our borders. Our Christian faith urges us to care for the resident and the stranger,” Wester said. 

“The truth is that immigrants are a benefit to our country. They help the economy by increasing the labor force, creating jobs, and boosting productivity. It is a fact that immigrants are often among the most law-abiding, religious, hardworking, and community-minded individuals in our country. They have a lower incarceration rate than the native-born population, and research shows that as the immigration population grows, the crime rate declines.”

Archbishop Jose Gómez of Los Angeles invoked the maternal protection of Our Lady of Guadalupe, expressing in a statement his solidarity with undocumented migrants facing potential deportation. Emphasizing the Gospel’s message of human dignity, he criticized fear-based policies and said any enforcement actions should be “matched by immediate action in Congress to fix our immigration system, which has been broken for decades now.”

“For Catholics, immigration is not a political issue. It is a matter of our deeply held religious beliefs. Jesus Christ commanded us to love God as our Father and to love our brothers and sisters, especially the most vulnerable, and regardless of what country they came from or how they got here. Our love for Jesus compels us to continue our works of love and service in our parishes, schools, and other ministries,” Gomez said. 

Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, prior to Trump’s inauguration, condemned reports of planned mass deportations, saying they are “not only profoundly disturbing but also wound us deeply.” He stated that “if the reports are true, it should be known that we would oppose any plan that includes a mass deportation of U.S. citizens born of undocumented parents.” 

He affirmed that while the government has a responsibility to secure borders, it is also “committed to defending the rights of all people and protecting their human dignity.”

Bishop James V. Johnston of Kansas City-St. Joseph urged members of his diocese to “embody the Gospel values of love, mercy, and justice” in light of the recent executive orders. He also called on people to “understand the teachings of the Church on migration and the rights of individuals, articulated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2241, and as outlined by the USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services.”

Bishop of Austin concerned about new immigration enforcement

 Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Austin Urges Compassion Amid Texas ICE Raids

The Diocese of Austin oversees Central Texas, including Waco

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - Bishop Joe S. Vásquez, fifth bishop of the Diocese of Austin, home to more than 700,000 Catholics across 25 counties in Central Texas, is speaking out in defense of the dignity of humanity, urging caution in immigration enforcement.

According to a Texas Tribune report, federal agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, conducted coordinated immigration enforcement operations on Sunday in Austin and San Antonio.

A similar operation occurred in the Rio Grande Valley.

“We understand that ICE has been instructed to focus on the deportation of individuals who pose a security risk to the United States. This includes those who are currently incarcerated or are otherwise involved in criminal activities that threaten public safety. At the same time, it is painful to see migrants, seeking refuge to raise their children in a safe environment, distressed with anxiety because of the news and information they hear,” Bishop Vásquez stated.

An ICE spokesperson described these assignments as “enhanced targeted operations” aimed at enforcing U.S. immigration law, ensuring public safety, and preventing potentially dangerous individuals from remaining in communities.

The operations occurred just days after President Trump’s second term began, accompanied by the announcement of mass deportations and several immigration-related executive orders.

These operations are part of a broader crackdown that has led to fear and uncertainty among migrant communities, especially in Texas, which is home to about 1.6 million undocumented people, according to a Pew Research Center Report.

“We call all to exercise caution so that hardworking migrant mothers and fathers are not wrongfully caught up in enforcement efforts. We must never treat people as political pawns, but rather, as human beings deserving of our compassion and care,” Bishop Vásquez said.

Copyright 2025 KWTX. All rights reserved.