Countries around the world must get serious about reforming their immigration policies to respect the rights of migrants and refugees and establish orderly procedures for welcoming newcomers, Pope Francis said.
Migration
Hispanic Catholic Leaders Meeting With Senators on Immigration Reform
When Antonio Guzman-Diaz meets with senators on Capitol Hill about migration on Wednesday, April 27, he’ll anchor his appeal for change on the realities migrants face: His own, as a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient, and those in his community, forced to flee dire circumstances in their home countries.
Visa Delays Causing Hardships for Church Workers in U.S.
Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso considers the process temporary religious worker visa recipients endure to maintain lawful status a “race against time” with federal processing backlogs making it difficult to satisfy different permissions and expiration dates.
Efforts by Church Organizations at Border are Simply Humanitarian
Recently, the border situation in Texas has prompted a number of lawsuits against the Diocese of Brownsville and its Catholic Charities.
Bishops’ Migration Chairman Says Inaction on Immigration ‘Cannot Stand’
The lack of will by politicians to move forward on immigration reform is affecting the lives of 11 million people in the country and something must be done, said the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ migration committee.
Immigration Advocates Lament Continuation of Remain in Mexico Policy
When President Joe Biden took office on Jan. 20, Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso remembers that regardless of other policy disagreements the nation’s bishops were confident that immigration was an issue the two sides could work together to solve.
Immigration Advocates Praise new Effort by DHS to End ‘Remain in Mexico’
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas submitted a lengthy document Oct. 29 that he hopes will lead to the eventual end of a policy designed to keep asylum-seekers to the U.S. on the Mexico side of the southern border until their cases are heard.
Black Catholic Administrators Call out Treatment of Haitians at Border
A group of Black Catholic administrators is calling on “Catholic leaders to do something, to say something” about undertones of racism they say is playing out in the treatment of Haitians at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Bishop Praises House Members for Proposing Citizenship Path for Immigrants
The U.S. bishops’ migration committee chairman Sept. 15 welcomed a move by House members to include language in the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill to provide a pathway to U.S. citizenship for beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and other immigrants.
Bishops Propose Action Plan to Tackle Root Causes Of Migration Crisis
Bishop Mario Dorsonville remembers a conversation he once had with a woman named Rosalinda in a doctor’s office. Rosalinda, a migrant, had legs full of cactus thorns from her journey through the desert to get to the U.S., but she explained that’s not what hurt most.