WelCom December 2024/January 2025
United States Catholic organisations have reiterated their ‘solidarity with immigrants’ and shared what the first 100 days of a second Trump administration may bring on immigration policy.
President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on hardline immigration policies, including his call for mass deportations, arguing in a presidential debate those without legal status ‘destroyed the fabric of our country.’
In a recent post on his social media website, Mr Trump quoted a post claiming his administration would be ‘prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets’ for a mass deportation programme, adding, ‘TRUE!!!’
He did not offer specifics on how he would carry out such a programme.
Calls for mass deportations run contrary to the Second Vatican Council’s teaching in Gaudium et Spes condemning ‘deportation’ among other actions, such as abortion, that ‘poison human society,’ a teaching St John Paul II affirmed in two encyclicals on moral truth and life issues.
Three US bishops issued a joint statement of pastoral concern on 14 November pledging support for immigrants.
‘Compelled by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and recognising the inherent dignity of each person as a child of God, we stand in firm solidarity with our immigrant brothers and sisters who live and labour in these United States,’ wrote US Conference of Catholic Bishops president Archbishop Timothy Broglio, El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz and Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto.
Karen Sullivan, director of advocacy for the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, a nonprofit that provides training and support for more than 400 Catholic and community-based immigration law providers in 49 US states, said the organisation ‘will keep a close eye’ on border and asylum policies in the first 100 days after Inauguration Day.
Source: OSV News, NCR Online