Church leaders continue to draw attention to what they call the “indiscriminate” enforcement actions of U.S. federal immigration officials as they urged Catholics on the World Day of Migrants and Refugees to pray, help immigrants, and advocate for policy change.
Pope Leo XIV titled this year’s observance of World Day of Migrants and Refugees “Even Just One of These Children,” citing Matthew 18:5: “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”
Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington, D.C., said in a homily on Sunday, Sept. 27, that “for the last year and a half, the people of the United States have witnessed the suffering of the undocumented in our midst, purposely and strategically magnified by our government, and for the most part, we have simply passed on by.”
McElroy wrote that “Jesus weeps all across our nation for the children who have been arrested, detained, transported to far-off centers with terrible living conditions, and cut off from their families.”
The cardinal described the case of a 5-year-old boy in Minneapolis, Liam Ramos, who along with his father was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and was “imprisoned for a month until an outraged federal judge ordered him to be released.”
After being held for about 10 days, on Jan. 31, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery in San Antonio ordered their release, writing in his order that the case grew from “the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.”
Biery attached a photo and two Gospel verses to his order: Matthew 19:14 (“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them”) and John 11:35 (“Jesus wept”).
In March an immigration judge denied the family’s asylum claim and ordered them removed to Ecuador.
McElroy also decried the government’s ending of temporary protected status (TPS) for nearly 1 million people, saying refugees admitted under it “never broke any law.”
The cardinal said: “They are being deported because of a general desire to exclude immigrants from American society. They are being deported because the bigotry that has often tarnished American immigrant history is rampant once again in our nation.”
The Trump administration has stated it ended TPS because it says conditions in many countries have improved and the program “has been abused and exploited by illegal aliens” and has become a “de facto amnesty” program.
TPS is granted when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) determines that a country is temporarily unsafe to return to because of armed conflict, disaster, or other extraordinary conditions. Congress designed TPS in the Immigration Act of 1990 as a time-limited humanitarian designation intended to be temporary; it is not a path to citizenship.
TPS holders are lawfully present and authorized to work while the designation lasts. After termination of TPS, however, people who remain commit a civil immigration violation.
Yakima, Washington, bishop calls for ‘surgical deportation’
Bishop Joseph Tyson of the Diocese of Yakima, Washington, also issued a message on Sunday, lamenting that “Yakima County seems to be disproportionately targeted” by immigration enforcement actions. He cited Freedom of Information Act data he had obtained, which he said showed that “fewer than a fourth” of the people ICE had detained between March and August had a criminal record.
Tyson called for “a public policy that allows for a surgical deportation of those with serious criminal records” rather than the “indiscriminate deportation” of immigrants who “have lived here for years” and are often “detained in front of courthouses while pursuing legal pathways to regularize their legal status.”
Andrew Arthur, a national-security and immigration expert at the Center for Immigration Studies, told EWTN News that “immigration laws — like every other law — are meaningless unless they are enforced.”
“Border security — which even the bishops support — is impossible without interior enforcement and deportations of those who entered illegally,” even if they have not committed other crimes, he said.
Referring to Tyson’s recommendation for “surgical deportations” for those with “serious criminal records,” Arthur, a former immigration judge, explained that the law does not require that “serious” crimes be committed before deportation takes place.
“A ‘serious crime’ is one that impacts or threatens any other person,” he said. Regardless “there is no reason to wait until a drunk driver kills someone before he is deported … There is no reason that the American people should be threatened by a criminal immigrant who should never have been here to begin with.”
McElroy also described ongoing immigration enforcement as a “wholesale war” on immigrants, which Arthur called a “reckless statement.”
“Using military terminology in this context denigrates federal officers who are tasked with a very difficult job,” Arthur said.
DHS affirms continued arrests of ‘anyone’ in country illegally
The Department of Homeland Security refuted a report circulating on Sept. 26 that said anonymous ICE officials claimed they were instructed to cease arresting illegal immigrants who had not committed crimes other than entering or remaining in the country illegally.
In a statement to EWTN News as well as in a social media post, DHS called the claim “false,” saying: “No one is off the table. We will continue to arrest any and all illegal aliens that come into our path. Anyone in our country illegally will be arrested and deported.”