Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso said every bishop from both sides of the border had attended parts of the latest meeting. He also explained the unique life of the Church and of the community on the border.
"Every border community, contrary to some expectations, is a community that extends across the border, and it goes both ways," he said. "In fact, the very lifeblood of our communities is our connection with our neighbors, with our family across the border.
Dylan Corbett, director of the Hope Border Institute, said the Tex-Mex bishops' gatherings over the decades shows their longstanding commitment "to our border communities, and those who live in them and those who travel through them: asylum seekers and migrants."
The current gathering differed from others because of the additional actions with faith leaders of different traditions.
"Everyone is concerned about what is going on right now. Right now is a dramatic moment for our country," Corbett said. Leaders of faith are "here to say we stand in solidarity with the migrants."
Corbett cited the recent deaths of two Guatemalan migrant children in the custody of U.S. officials.
"We're here to say 'no more.' Migrants deserve much better and our border communities deserve much better," he said. "We say no to the construction of the wall, we say no to the symbol of hate and division that it is. We say no to the 'turnbacks', the illegal stopping of asylum seekers at ports of entry."
Such a policy if implemented would be a "disaster," resulting in "refugee camps on the other side of the border."
Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville stressed the need to speak with, listen to, and see with open eyes "the experience of the immigrant." These are "people the world often does not have time to talk to."
"We create policies without talking to people who are affected by them," he said.
"It's so important for us as pastors to be in contact with the very concrete experiences of families," he continued. "It is the work of the church to be hospitable," he continued.
Caring for these migrants also has a spiritual aspect, Bishop Flores said.
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"Pope Francis insists to us that we must attend also to the spiritual need of the poor," he said, adding that the worst form of discrimination is "not to announce the good news to the poor." This is part of evangelizing, and the start of evangelizing is "the act of human contact and respect."
The bishops also gathered with advocacy groups and the Catholic faithful for interreligious prayer and witness and a show of solidarity on the U.S.-Mexico border at the Anapra Fence the afternoon of Feb. 26.
Participants in the week's events included Bishop Jose Guadalupe Torres Campos of Juarez, the Mexican bishops' national representative on migration programs; Father Robert Stark, a regional coordinator of the Vatican Migrants and Refugees Section; staff representatives of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; and leaders with the Catholic Legal Immigration Network and Catholic Charities.