in Border States and Beyond
on Recommended Reforms
to Immigration Enforcement
in the United States
February 24, 2026
We speak out as
pastors in border states and beyond concerned about the impact of the
Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) recent and ongoing immigration
enforcement activities against individuals and families who are without legal
status in our country.
While we
acknowledge the right and duty of a sovereign nation to enforce its laws, we
also believe that those laws should be upheld in a manner that protects the
God-given human dignity and rights of the human person.
As Congress and
the administration consider options to reform how immigration enforcement is
conducted in our nation, we offer the following policy recommendations which,
we believe, will help protect the human rights of immigrants and their
families:
The right to
apply for asylum at the border should be honored. We are very concerned with bona fide
asylum-seekers being denied the opportunity to apply for asylum at the
US-Mexico border. The right to apply for asylum is part of US and international
law. Denying them this right leaves them in dangerous conditions and
situations, subject to abuse by criminal organizations. Access to asylum at the
border should be fully restored. We also oppose the arrest and detention of
law-abiding refugees who have been lawfully admitted to the US, as has been
proposed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Sensitive
locations should be protected.
We strongly urge you to restore “sensitive locations”—places of worship,
schools, and health-care facilities—as protected from immigration enforcement
activities. These locations must be protected to ensure that immigrants and
their families are able to access, without fear, important services necessary
for their well-being and survival. In fact, access to these services —
religious practice, education, and health-care — is protected under US law.
From our
perspective as pastors, we have found that members of our flock have decided
not to attend Mass or access the sacraments of the Church because of the fear
of immigration enforcement. We consider this an issue of religious freedom—a
right enshrined in both the US Constitution and international covenants.
Moreover, children should be able to attend school without fear and those in
need of urgent medical care should be able to seek treatment with confidence.
The reinstatement of these sensitive locations would preserve basic access to
these necessary and life-affirming services.
Immigration
enforcement should not focus on those who are contributing to the nation. We reaffirm the position of the US Catholic
bishops that those immigrants and their families who have built equities in our
country and are otherwise law-abiding—the vast majority of the
undocumented—should be given an opportunity to come out of the shadows and earn
their citizenship over time, becoming full legal members of and contributors to
their communities and the nation. As such, we believe that immigrants and their
families who are contributing to the common good should not be targeted for
removal.
Immigrant
families should be kept together.
We also strongly urge you to ensure that the separation of families, which can
have detrimental effects on the family unit, is minimized by allowing them, to
the greatest extent possible, to remain together in the US. Deporting
“mixed-status” families as a group—families with at least one family member who
is a citizen—can significantly harm family members who have been born and
raised in our country, especially US-citizen children. Studies have shown, as
well, that separating US-citizen children from their parent(s) can cause
children unnecessary emotional harm and inhibit their development.
Due process
should be restored in the immigration system. We strongly believe that everyone should receive the due
process afforded by our justice system, including a right to appear in court,
ideally with the benefit of legal representation. The right to due process is
enshrined in our Constitution. We believe that certain policies currently being
pursued by immigration enforcement undermine this right–the use of expedited
removal, warrantless arrests, administrative warrants, courtroom arrests, and
racial profiling, among other policies–and should be prohibited.
The use of
tactics to intimidate and create fear in the community should be halted. The use of certain tactics by immigration
enforcement officials are designed to intimidate immigrants and create fear in
the community. The use of masks, random stops without probable cause, roving
patrols, and physical abuse of immigrants and others has been well documented.
Such tactics can intimidate immigrants, even those with a legal basis to remain
in the US, and prevent them from asserting their rights. We urge that the use
of these tactics be stopped.
Detention
standards should be enforced and vulnerable groups should not be detained. The expansion of detention facilities
across the nation, such as the so-called Alligator Alcatraz in Florida, is of
grave concern to us, as many of these facilities are being built in remote
locations, incarcerating immigrants in substandard conditions and in some cases
without access to appropriate medical care and religious services. We echo the
recent statement from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) that the administration’s
plan to convert warehouses into mass detention centers is “deeply troubling.”
In our view, the use of detention should be minimized, not expanded, and
alternatives to detention be pursued.
We also urge our
immigration enforcement officials not to detain vulnerable persons and groups,
including families and children, pregnant women, and the disabled. We also
strongly assert that detainees have access to religious and pastoral care,
including Mass and the sacraments of the Catholic Church.
Congress and
the administration should fund reintegration programs for deportees. Finally, we urge the US government to help
mitigate the root causes of irregular migration—the lack of economic development,
climate degradation, and conflict and insecurity in sending nations—as well as
to invest in reintegration programs to ensure that immigrants can safely and
humanely reintegrate into their original homes and support themselves and their
families in dignity. Immigrants should not be deported to third countries.
As the US
Catholic bishops and many across the country have advocated for decades,
Congress should repair the US immigration system by placing hard-working
immigrants and their families on a path to citizenship and by improving access
to the legal immigration system. As was stated in a Special Message in November
of last year, the US bishops oppose “the indiscriminate mass deportation of
people” and believe it is detrimental to the human rights of our fellow human
beings and not in the best interest of the nation.
As Congress and
the administration deliberate changes to how immigration enforcement is
conducted across the nation, we urge them to consider these recommendations. As
always, we stand ready to work with them to create an immigration system which
ensures public safety, protects human rights, encourages economic growth and
justice, and upholds our heritage as a nation of immigrants.
Most Reverend
Gustavo Garcia-Siller
Archbishop of San
Antonio
Most Reverend
John C. Wester
Archbishop of
Santa Fe
Most Reverend
Paul D. Etienne
Archbishop of
Seattle
Most Reverend
Edward J. Weisenburger
Archbishop of
Detroit
Most Reverend
Peter Baldacchino
Bishop of Las
Cruces
Most Reverend
Oscar Cantú
Bishop of San
Jose
Most Reverend
John P. Dolan
Bishop of Phoenix
Most Reverend
Daniel E. Garcia
Bishop of Austin
Most Reverend
James A. Misko
Bishop of Tucson
Most Reverend
Gerald F. Kicanas
Bishop Emeritus
of Tucson
Most Reverend
Michael Pham
Bishop of San
Diego
Most Reverend
Mark J. Seitz
Bishop of El Paso
Most Reverend
James S. Wall
Bishop of Gallup
Most Reverend
Nicholas DiMarzio
Bishop Emeritus
of Brooklyn
Most Reverend
Bruce Lewandowski, CSsR
Bishop of
Providence
Most Reverend
John Stowe, OFM Conv
Bishop of
Lexington
Most Reverend
Peter Da Bui
Auxiliary Bishop
of Phoenix
Most Reverend
Eduardo A. Nevares
Auxiliary Bishop
of Phoenix
