Human dignity 'not dependent' on legal status, say Catholic leaders

(OSV News) -- Several Catholic leaders are speaking out against the Trump administration's reversal of a longstanding policy limiting where immigration officials could make arrests.

On Jan. 21, the Department of Homeland Security announced that previously designated "sensitive locations" such as churches and schools would no longer be off-limits for such arrests. The agency said in a statement that "criminals will no longer be able to hide in America's schools and churches" to evade law enforcement.

The move followed several executive orders on immigration issued by President Donald Trump hours after his Jan. 20 inauguration, based on campaign pledges to tighten border security and ensure mass deportations of undocumented migrants.

But allowing for immigration arrests at houses of worship and other previously protected locations threatens human dignity, religious liberty and society itself, said several Catholic leaders in a joint statement issued Jan. 23 by Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration; Sister Mary Haddad, a member of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas and president and CEO of Catholic Health Association of the United States; and Kerry Alys Robinson, president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA.

"We recognize the need for just immigration enforcement and affirm the government's obligation to carry it out in a targeted, proportional, and humane way," they said. "However, non-emergency immigration enforcement in schools, places of worship, social service agencies, healthcare facilities, or other sensitive settings where people receive essential services would be contrary to the common good."

The three said that they were "already witnessing reticence among immigrants to engage in daily life, including sending children to school and attending religious services."

"All people have a right to fulfill their duty to God without fear," they said.

According to Pew Research Center, Christians "are the largest religious group in the world among both migrants and nonmigrants," and are "overrepresented among international migrants, accounting for 30% of the world's overall population and 47% of all people living outside their country of birth, as of 2020."

In their statement, Bishop Seitz, Sister Mary and Robinson said, "Through our parishes, shelters, hospitals, schools, and other Church institutions, we recognize that this dignity is not dependent on a person's citizenship or immigration status."

"Catholic health care, Catholic Charities agencies, and the Church's other social service ministries work daily to feed, house, heal, educate, and meet people's needs in communities across our nation," they said. "Through these ministries -- together with the Church's responsibility to proclaim the Gospel and celebrate the sacraments -- we uphold the belief that all people are conceived with inherent dignity, reflecting the image of God."

"The charitable services we provide are fundamental to who we are as Christians," they added, quoting Pope Benedict XVI's 2005 encyclical, "Deus Caritas Est": "For the Church, charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is a part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being."

The policy of "turning places of care, healing, and solace into places of fear and uncertainty for those in need, while endangering the trust between pastors, providers, educators and the people they serve, will not make our communities safer," they said.

"Our organizations stand ready to work on a better path forward that protects the dignity of all those we serve, upholds the sacred duty of our providers, and ensures our borders and immigration system are governed with mercy and justice," they said.