Immigrants

ive Catholic bishops from the United States-Mexico border region led a day of pastoral accompaniment in Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Mexico, June 26 as the United States approaches its 250th birthday as a nation.

As the U.S. marks its 250th anniversary, the nation’s Catholic bishops have released a prayer service text commemorating its immigrants and refugees, as well as those trafficked under historic and modern forms of slavery in the U.S.

Now is a time when many gather around tables filled with family and abundance, yet so many immigrant families in our community are facing fears they never imagined. This holiday season, may we remember that Christ came to serve and show us the way.

It would be much more to the benefit of our country, and certainly to the immigrants, that they were given a chance to rectify their situation and continue to contribute to our nation and its economy.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice Feb. 21, 2023, announced a proposal that if approved could significantly limit asylum in the U.S.

“Most of the people expelled were politicians or candidates for public office that (Daniel) Ortega locked up before the elections,” the archbishop said, but among them were “four or five priests, a couple of seminarians, a deacon and an organist.”

In oral arguments that lasted more than two hours, the court seemed divided over the challenge to the administration’s policy that put a priority on deporting immigrants who pose a threat to national security, public safety or border security.

During his term, he said, he wants to focus on addressing the problems that make people leave their home countries but also the response to those who show up in the U.S. seeking refuge.