Migration

Last Thursday, about 25 families exited a bus near a U.S.-Mexico border bridge near downtown El Paso. They had been flown in from south Texas, where they were apprehended after attempting to enter the country. Now, they faced expulsion into Ciudad Juárez, 800 miles from where they initially crossed.

COVID-19 pandemic in the United States -- the faster spread of the coronavirus among those detained in facilities for immigration violations.

LANDSKRONA, Sweden (CNS) -- After making the arduous trek from his native Eritrea to the coastal town of Sundsvall, Sweden, in 2014, Solomon Tesfay dreamed of a better life for himself, his wife and three children.

LANDSKRONA, Sweden (CNS) -- Refugees and asylum-seekers who arrived in Sweden hoping to build a better life now find themselves in a precarious situation as the country considers new migration policies that threaten their legal status.

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The principal message of an April 15 Georgetown University webinar on immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border: Don't believe everything you hear from politicians. Because more often than not, no one pays close attention to the reality of border issues, and repeat the same old talking points.

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The chairman of the U.S. bishops' migration committee said April 19 he is disappointed that President Joe Biden announced he will not increase the 15,000 cap on the number of refugees who can be resettled in the United States for the current fiscal year.

NAIROBI, Kenya (CNS) -- Catholic bishops in Kenya are urging the government to shelve plans to close two refugee camps in the north, which host refugees who fled civil war and famine in Somalia and South Sudan.

CHALATENANGO, El Salvador (CNS) -- Life in the northern mountains of El Salvador is a tranquil as it can get: There's little traffic but an abundance of tropical birds, fruits and lush hills.

"While we have a new administration and it's a new day, injustice persists," said the Rev. Jennifer Butler, a Presbyterian minister and CEO of Faith in Public Life, which organized the April 7 online event, "Our Holy Season Prayer: Reunite All Families."

BOGOTÁ, Colombia (CNS) -- Church groups in Colombia are mobilizing to support thousands of Venezuelan refugees who recently fled a military offensive and are stuck in a remote Colombian border town.

Catholic bishops who head the U.S. and Mexico dioceses along the border that separates them, along with the chairman of the U.S. bishops' migration committee, issued a joint statement April 1 urging governments, political leaders and civil society to "work together to welcome, protect, promote and integrate migrants."

Whether people admit it or not, climate change and environmental destruction are forcing millions from their homes, and Catholics have a responsibility to assist them, Pope Francis wrote in the preface to a new document.

The Mexican bishops' migrant ministry says people are arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border with illusions of easily entering the United States, but they risk being returned to Mexico under rules for expelling people rapidly during the pandemic.

Caritas Internationalis and the Church in Syria have appealed for urgent aid for Syrians plagued by 10 years of civil war, and for support to NGOs reaching out to them.

As federal officials announced that a downtown Dallas facility had been chosen to house up to 3,000 migrant teenagers starting the week of March 15, the Catholic faithful in the Diocese of Dallas sprang into action to help.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved two separate immigration bills March 18, clearing an initial hurdle for two groups seeking a path toward citizenship: younger unauthorized immigrants called "Dreamers" and migrant farmworkers.

Migrants riding atop northbound trains break from their trips to refresh at the Jesuit-run day center in this industrial city, about 500 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border at El Paso, Texas.

They have included the name of the Salvadoran teen in a list of Mass intentions, pray the rosary each day and ask for divine intercession that he reach the U.S. safely.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shined a light on "overlapping inequalities" in society around the globe, said Good Shepherd Sister Winifred Doherty.

Pro-immigrant groups applauded a March 8 decision by the Biden administration to protect some 320,000 Venezuelans in the United States under a temporary immigration program.