asylum seekers

Calling it “a backdoor asylum ban,” more than 250 faith leaders and organizations called for an end to the Trump administration’s policy to turn away asylum-seekers if they don’t first seek protection in countries along their way to the U.S.

Guatemala grapples with a proposed “safe third country” agreement, which would mean migrants wanting to apply for asylum in the United States, but having first stepped foot in Guatemala, would be returned to the impoverished Central American country to apply for asylum there.

Catholic leaders and advocates protest the Trump administration’s handling of detained immigrant children during a “Catholic Day of Action for Immigrant Children” July 18, 2019, in the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington.

Guatemala’s bishops criticized the idea of the country entering into an agreement with the U.S. government to deem it a “safe third country” for asylum-seekers.

During an April 30 hearing before the House Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security, Bishop Mark J. Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, spoke of his border community’s response assisting asylum-seeking families who have been released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ migration committee and the president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services March 13 joined Texas and Mexico bishops in opposing the U.S. policy of sending asylum-seekers back to Mexico while they wait for court proceedings.

The Dignified Border shelter is also short on space to host asylum-seekers for long-term stays.

As waves of Haitian asylum seekers continue to cross illegally into Canada from the United States, Catholic dioceses in Quebec and eastern Ontario are mobilizing to provide them with food, shelter and pastoral support.