America’s bishops are calling for compassion and family unity in the face of President Donald Trump’s immigration laws.
Archbishop Gomez, who is the vice president of the U.S Conference of Catholic Bishops, said immigration is the “human rights test of our time”.
Commenting on Trump’s immigration laws, he said having a policy that solely focuses on deportations without addressing immigration system reform risks causing “a human rights nightmare.”
It is not morally acceptable just to say: “It’s their [the immigrants’] own fault,” or “This is what they get for breaking our laws,” he said.
“They are still people, children of God, no matter what they did wrong,” Archbishop Gomez said.
He said he was concerned because people seem to be incapable of showing mercy, or to see in another person, for example, an unauthorized immigrant, a child of God.
“And so we are willing to accept injustices and abuses that we should never accept,” he said.
Texan Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller has also been pleading with the government to stop plans that would separate children from mothers in immigration detention centers.
At the same time, Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin supported extending the residency of a 59-year-old grandfather who was facing deportation after living in the U.S. for 25 years.
Tobin said although he cannot help all the 11 million undocumented people in the US, he hope’s his support will say “Look they’ve got faces, they’ve got histories and there’s a lot of advantage to leaving them alone.”
Source
- Catholic Sentinel
- Crux
- Image: US Law Center
