The day after Title 42 expired, lifting pandemic public health restrictions that had limited border crossings into the United States, a group of bishops along the southwest U.S.-Mexico border said they “remain committed” to the Church’s efforts to welcome migrants.
Mexico, where some women found themselves facing an uncertain future, celebrated Mother’s Day May 10, much like other countries in Latin America where they came from. But far from home, with scarce funds, vulnerable and trying to understand what the May 11 changes to U.S. asylum policy would mean for them, Mother’s Day seemed distant in their memory.
Two years into President Joe Biden’s term, Catholic immigration leaders wonder what happened to his campaign trail pledge to create a more fair and humane immigration system. They say while some positive steps have been taken, the administration has been slow to act, increasingly political, and reliant on recycled ineffective policies.
Last summer, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott started putting migrants onto buses and sending them to New York, some of the newcomers landed on the doorstep of Catholic Charities Brooklyn & Queens on Joralemon Street.
As Title 42 draws to its scheduled close, House Republicans are planning to vote on border security legislation criticized by the U.S. bishops.
The Biden administration announced April 27 new steps it would take in an effort to reduce migrant arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border when Title 42 expires in May.
Catholic leaders joined immigration advocates and representatives from other faiths on March 21 to protest at the U.S-Mexico border in Arizona, in front of the White House in Washington, and other locations around the country, speaking out against ongoing asylum restrictions at the U.S. border.
While new border measures from President Joe Biden’s Administration expand legal pathways for migrants to enter the country, the U.S. bishops’ chair on migration warns they also simultaneously expand expulsions — which, he said, isn’t really progress.
Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily stopped the Biden administration from ending a pandemic-related border restriction with a one-page order Dec. 19.
While hoping for the best amid an appeal by the Biden administration of a district judge’s decision to end a controversial Trump-era measure allowing immediate expulsion of immigrants, advocates for new arrivals along the U.S.-Mexico border say their focus remains on the migrants they encounter.
