U.S.-Mexico Border

Sister Norma is the 50th recipient of the award, created by the Davenport Catholic Interracial Council and inspired by Pope John XXIII’s 1963 encyclical, “Pacem in Terris” (Peace on Earth), which called all people to secure peace among the nations.

The policy in question is the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP, which requires asylum-seekers to stay in Mexico until their cases can be heard in U.S. immigration courts.

News reports said border agents initially turned away a Ukrainian woman and her children based on a Trump-era measure called Title 42.

They said Black migrants have faced racism, not just through immigration policies that fail to protect them, but also at the hands of U.S. immigration authorities and officials who mistreat them.

More than 200 supporters gathered on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border near Nogales, Arizona, Sept. 25, the eve of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, to accompany 25 families seeking asylum in the United States.

The Haitians and other migrants have been living under the Del Rio International Bridge awaiting processing, while coping with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees and limited access to food, water and shelter.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious asked members for urgent help in ministering to migrants when families, minors and others were increasingly coming across cities and towns close to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Sister Norma urged the president and other national leaders to “please come and see” with open hearts what is happening at the border.