El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz, the U.S. bishops’ conference migration committee chair, applauded the federal government for its new migrant family reunification program, but simultaneously cautioned that comprehensive immigration reform from Congress remains the only sustainable path forward.
The Texas Catholic bishops urged immigration reform, saying it is necessary to prevent what happened to 53 migrants discovered dead and dying inside a trailer June 27 from happening again.
Responding to the border crisis in Del Rio, Texas, and broader immigration issues, more than 150 Catholic organizations last week implored President Joe Biden to end a policy called Title 42 — federal permission for the immediate expulsion of migrants and limitation of their right to seek asylum.
Sister Dianna Ortiz struggled daily with memories of torture and rape at the hands of Guatemala security forces in 1989, but she would not let that define her life.
A report by the Washington-based Refugees International organization charges U.S. immigration policy with helping the spread of the coronavirus in Guatemala, as federal agencies in the U.S. and Mexico have repatriated infected Guatemalans through deportations.
For Guatemalans in the Diocese of Brooklyn, the feast day of “The Black Christ of Esquipulas” came early this year.
In one of his first pastoral visits outside Guatemala since being given a red hat in October, newly minted Cardinal Alvaro Ramazzini traveled to Mississippi last weekend to stand in solidarity with Guatemalan immigrants subjected to the largest state deportation raid in U.S. history.
St. Finbar Catholic Church, Bath Beach — long a parish known for welcoming immigrants — honored the many Guatemalans in its community with a vigil Mass, procession and fiesta on Sept. 28 to celebrate the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel.
The tragedy of great magnitude occurred on June 3 and left more than a hundred dead people and almost 200 missing, mainly affecting the departments of Chimaltenango, Escuintla and Sacatepéquez.
Pope Francis sent condolences to Guatemala after a horrific volcanic eruption left more than 60 people dead.
