USCCB migration chair: ‘Acts of accompaniment are vitally important’
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The head of the USCCB migration committee encouraged the U.S. bishops to participate in a new national initiative to support and accompany immigrants affected by the Trump administration’s policy of mass deportations.
“As our late Holy Father Pope Francis so often reminded us, and as Pope Leo has strongly reiterated in these months of his papacy, acts of accompaniment are vitally important and integral to our shared mission of bringing hope and truth to a world desperately in need,” said Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso.
Seitz said the migration committee, which he heads, has been working on a national initiative entitled “You are not alone.”
The initiative is inspired by existing efforts around the country, and is adaptable to different dioceses, he said. It focuses on supporting local efforts in four areas of ministry: emergency and family support, accompaniment and pastoral care, communications and Church teaching, and solidarity through prayer and public witness.
Seitz encouraged his fellow bishops to take part in the initiative in their own dioceses.
His comments came Tuesday at the USCCB’s fall plenary assembly in Baltimore.
During his presentation, he showed a four-minute video with testimonies from members of the immigrant community, sharing their fears and anxieties surrounding the possibility of deportation and family separation.
The bishop said Pope Leo had a chance to view the video during a meeting with a delegation from the United States last month. The pope was visibly moved, he added.
Seitz said the country is currently facing a “critical moment,” with policies enacted by the Trump administration that “are intimidating and dehumanizing the immigrants in our midst, regardless of how they came to be here.”
“The repeated rhetoric about and approach to enforcement - focused on terrorists, dangerous criminals, and those with final orders of removal - has largely been contradicted by several actions. This includes the detention of those attending their immigration court hearings, the targeting of international students, and even the circumvention of protections for unaccompanied children, among others.”
More than two-thirds of the nearly 60,000 people being held in immigrant detention have no criminal convictions, he noted.
At the same time, he said, the administration has raised fees, lowered caps for incoming refugees, and introduced new obstacles to obtain many legal immigration benefits.
“The administration has taken several steps to terminate legal protections and work authorization for hundreds of thousands of people, adding them to the existing undocumented population. This includes Afghans who assisted our military and their families, relocated to the United States by our government, as well as Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans with temporary protected status,” Seitz said.
“This unyielding commitment to mass deportation, curtailing legal immigration, combined with the unprecedented funding for immigration enforcement that was included in the recent reconciliation bill has created a situation unlike anything we’ve seen previously,” he said. “The hiring of thousands of enforcement officers, historic increases in detention capacity, and arrangements to send people to third countries, completely unfamiliar to them, make clear this is just the beginning.”
Faced with these unprecedented circumstances, he said, the Church cannot be silent.
“Our immigrant brothers and sisters, from those undocumented to those who are naturalized citizens, are living in a deep state of fear. Many are too afraid to work, send their children to school, or avail themselves of the sacraments. And even those who continue to participate in daily life do so with a dark cloud hanging over them,” he said.
It is the job of the Church to remind people living in darkness that they are not alone, Seitz said.
“We know our Church has been accompanying newcomers to this land since before our country’s founding,” he said.
He called the conference to discern a statement from the entire body of bishops to speak into the reality of the present moment in the country.
Seitz also stressed the need to work for immigration reform.
He noted that religious workers who apply today for a green card will face a wait of at least 30 years, saying this is just one example of the need for reform in the immigration system.
“In addition to the spiritual and corporal works of mercy at the heart of our faith, we cannot abandon our longstanding advocacy for just and meaningful reforms to our immigration system,” he said.
“In these ways, we further our shared commitment to the fullness of the Gospel of Life and proclaiming the God-given dignity of every person from the moment of conception through every stage of life and to natural death.”
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