Dreamers are undocumented migrants who arrived in the US as children.

Bishop Joe Vásquez says the US Catholic Bishops conference supports the bipartisan "Uniting and Securing America" (USA) Act of 2018 as it is currently written.

Vásquez chairs the conference's Committee on Migration.

The Act offers Dreamers with protection from deportation and a path to citizenship.

It also increases border security technology at the US/Mexico border.

There are various ways it achieves this.

New technology is one way. The Act also makes it possible to increase the number of immigration judges and Board of Immigration Appeals staff attorneys, and seeks to address root causes and prevent future irregular migration from Central America.

"We are hopeful our support of the current version of the USA Act, and our continued support of the Dream Act, will encourage Congress to act now and find a humane legislative solution for Dreamers," Vásquez says.

"Every day, my brother bishops and I witness directly the constant anxiety of Dreamer youth and their families, and that experience of urgency moves us to press Congress for an immediate and durable solution to this problem."

Vásquez's announcement followed a Federal Judge's statement that the Trump administration's decision to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme was based on the "virtually unexplained" grounds that it was "unlawful."

The programme protects Dreamers from deportation and allows them to work.

The judge stayed his decision for 90 days.

He has given the Department of Homeland Security the opportunity to better explain its reasoning for canceling the programme.

If the Department fails to offer a rationale, the judge will tell them to begin accepting and processing new applications. They will also have to renew applications for current DACA recipients.

Source

• Ignatian Solidarity
• Zenit
• Image: Ignatian Solidarity Network

Right now, they are facing deportation.

The Catholic church in the US has issued an urgent call to action to help Dreamers (young immigrants brought illegally to the country as children).

While they are currently shielded from deportation under an Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme, this is about to change.

DACA allowed some individuals who entered the country as minors, and had either entered or remained in the country illegally, to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and to be eligible for a work permit.

The protection DACA offers is about to change.

President Trump ordered an end to DACA last September. He gave Congress until 5 March to deal with the fate of DACA recipients.

The Senate's failure last week to get the 60 votes needed to move a bill forward to protect Dreamers is affecting about 700,000 immigrants.

The precarious position the Dreamers may find themselves in has spurred Church leaders from across the US to ask Catholics to contact members of Congress next Monday.

Dubbing Monday 26 February as a "National Catholic Call-In Day to Protect Dreamers," the bishops want Catholics to ask Congress members "to protect Dreamers from deportation, to provide them a path to citizenship, and to avoid any damage to existing protections for families and unaccompanied minors in the process."

"With the March 5th deadline looming, we ask once again that members of Congress show the leadership necessary to find a just and humane solution for these young people, who daily face mounting anxiety and uncertainty," they said.

Source

• Houston Chronicle
• The Catholic Register
• Image: La Prensa Peru

Bannon, who is a former adviser to president Trump, says he believes the church has been "terrible" to Mr. Trump on the issue of immigration.

He was commenting on the bishops' response to Trump's cancellation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme.

DACA protects nearly 800,000 immigrants who came to the U.S. as children from being deported because they have no documents.

In his view the bishops are just supporting immigrants out of "economic interest" and because they are "unable to really come to grips with the problems in the church.

"To come to grips with the problems in the church, they [the bishops] need illegal aliens — they need illegal aliens to fill the churches," Bannon says.

"They have an economic interest in unlimited immigration, unlimited illegal immigration.

"As much as I respect Cardinal Dolan and the bishops on doctrine, this is not doctrine.

"I totally respect the pope, and I totally respect the Catholic bishops and cardinals on doctrine. This is not about doctrine, this is about the sovereignty of a nation and, in that regard, they're just another guy with an opinion."

Saying Banon might be right about just being "another guy with an opinion", Dolan says he was "rather befuddled" about his claim that the church's need for immigrants is economically motivated.

"I don't really care to go into what I think is a preposterous and rather insulting statement, that the only reason we Bishops care for immigrants is for the economic because we want to fill our churches and get more money," Dolan says.

"That's insulting and that's just so ridiculous that it doesn't merit a comment."

Source

• America Magazine
• America Magazine
• Business Insider
• CBS News
• Image: BBC.com