The president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops called upon President Donald Trump to “avoid further endangering innocent human life by ceasing the deportation of large numbers of people to Haiti at this time, particularly while there is not an adequate system in place to provide for their safe and orderly reception and reintegration.”
Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City wrote:
As citizens of this great country, we have been entrusted with a tremendous moral responsibility, and this is true most of all for you as our head of state, Mr. President. To this end, I respectfully ask: What good is the immense wealth, prosperity, and influence with which we have been blessed as a nation if not used in service of our humanity?
In June, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration has the authority to end temporary protected status (TPS) for Haitians and Syrians whom an earlier Secretary of Homeland Security had permitted to live temporarily in the United States—in the Haitians’ case, since the 2010 earthquake there; in the Syrians’ case, since 2012, because of repression under then-President Bashar al-Assad.