U.S. Bishops’ immigration committee asks ICE to decrease raids
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Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City

Washington D.C., Mar 13, 2008 / 02:08 am (CNA).- The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration met with a high-ranking ICE official on Monday to discuss the impact of immigration raids around the country.  The committee’s bishops encouraged a decrease or elimination of immigration raids and asked that churches, hospitals, and charities not be targeted for enforcement actions.

The committee discussed immigration enforcement policy with Assistant Secretary Julie Meyers of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  Assistant Secretary Meyers, who heads the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division within DHS, oversees the enforcement of immigration law within the country.

Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City, the committee chairman, said that the tone of the meeting was cooperative, not confrontational.  According to Bishop Wester, the committee acknowledged the right of the government to enforce the law, but told Assistant Secretary Meyers that the use of raids should be minimized, if not abandoned altogether.

“We wanted to communicate our desire to work with the government to minimize the use of raids and to reduce the negative impact of the raids on immigrant families,” said Bishop Wester.  “We felt that the Assistant Secretary was willing to work more closely with us to prevent the separation of families and to protect children.”

ICE raids have taken place over the past 18 months in Greeley, Colorado, Grand Island, Nebraska, New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Utah, among other places.

During these raids, children who are U.S. citizens have been separated from their undocumented parents who were arrested in the raids.

“Our primary concern is to reduce the trauma that children experience when a parent is taken away suddenly,” said Bishop Wester.  “We informed the Assistant Secretary that diocesan and Catholic Charities personnel are in a good position to help families in the aftermath of an enforcement action.”

Bishop Wester said the meeting also focused on common interests, such as enacting comprehensive immigration reform and ending human trafficking.

The committee also expressed its opposition to immigration enforcement activity focused on churches, hospitals, or social service programs. 

“We do not want migrants to be afraid to attend Mass or to seek the basic assistance that they need,” Bishop Wester explained.

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Subscriber comments:
Published by: Ellen Burk
Denver, Co 12/01/2008 02:42 AM EST
Churches supporting illegal immigration should loose their tax exempt status. Churches who harbor the illegal should be prosecuted. They are supporting and encouaging crimes of all kinds. I am now a former Catholic because of the stance on illegal immigration.
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Published by: Stephen
Apple Valley, Ca. 04/01/2008 12:17 PM EST
The Catholic church should lose their tax exempt status. Is there any crime Catholics are against?
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Published by: William Garland
Mantoloking, N.J., USA 03/15/2008 07:47 PM EST
The Catholic bishops have become one sided advocates on immigration failing to see the multitude of moral issues involved. While castigating the US for its immigration law, they fail to address Mexico's failure to use its vast resources (it has the world's 10th largest economy) to deal with its social problems, preferring to export them to the US. Mexico's wealthy (it has over half the billionaires in the hemisphere south of the US) pay less in an effective rate of taxation than the US middle class. Mexico has a moral responsibility to use its assets to help its poor rather than urging them to enter the US illegally. Should Mexico's billionaires pay low taxes while hospitals in border communities in the US are forced to close due to uncompensated care provided to illegal Mexican aliens? When the bishops turn some of their attention to this and other injustices inflicted on the US by illegal immigratkion, they will be more credible speakers on appropriate US immigration policy.
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Published by: Chantal
Warminster, PA 03/13/2008 07:08 PM EST
The ever-growing number of friends and colleagues who have left the Catholic Church have done so due to the CC's position on illegal aliens. In my lifetime, I have never, ever witnessed the CC expending such efforts on behalf of legal American parishioners who are constantly being harrassed to contribute more and more money to further enable the CC to continue their illegal activity.
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