Earlier this month, Pope Francis wrote a strong letter condemning the Trump administration’s demonization of migrants and plans for mass deportation. “I’ve intently adopted the most important disaster that’s happening in america with the initiation of a program of mass deportations,” Francis wrote to U.S. bishops, including “What’s constructed on the premise of power, and never on the reality concerning the equal dignity of each human being, begins badly and can finish badly.”
This week, america Convention of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) adopted up with concrete motion, suing the Trump administration over its abrupt halt of mandated funding for the U.S. refugee program, arguing in a lawsuit that the “illegal” suspension of congressionally-approved funds “violates a number of statutes,” “undermines the Structure’s separation of powers,” and has left greater than 6,700 vetted refugees who had been assigned to the group by the federal authorities with out essential assist as they search to start new lives within the U.S.
The sudden halt in funding for the decades-old humanitarian program has additionally compelled USCCB to put off 50 devoted employees who as a part of the Migration & Refugee Companies workplace have assisted in refugee resettlement, Catholic information company Crux experiences.
“For many years, the U.S. authorities has chosen to confess refugees and outsourced its statutory accountability to offer these refugees with resettlement help to non-profit organizations like USCCB,” the group states within the lawsuit, which names Secretary of State Marco Rubio and different Trump administration officers as defendants. “However now, after refugees have already arrived and been positioned in USCCB’s care, the federal government is trying to tug the rug out from underneath USCCB’s packages by halting funding.”
Throughout a Thursday press occasion that was moderated by America’s Voice and featured religion leaders from a number of religion traditions, Bishop Mark Seitz, Bishop of El Paso and chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration, referred to as the Trump administration’s actions “a betrayal of our values.”
“They’re an assault on our households, they usually threat weaponizing the regulation in opposition to the susceptible,” Bishop Seitz mentioned. “There is no such thing as a denying that the rhetoric on this challenge, the actions that seal the border to the susceptible, the rolling again of humanitarian assist packages, and the actions that carry us every day nearer to realizing the administration’s purpose of mass deportations are deeply rooted in intolerance … I select a distinct path, individuals of religion throughout the nation select a distinct path.”
Different notable audio system from the decision included Mark Hetfield, President of HIAS; Rev. William H. Lamar IV, Metropolitan AME Church; Rev. Gabriel Salguero, The Gathering Place and Nationwide Latino Evangelical Coalition; and Jim Simpson, Government Director of the Middle on Religion and Justice. “I feel throughout all religion traditions, however actually inside Judaism and Christianity,” mentioned Simpson, “we’re referred to as with out exception to deal with everybody, who’re all made in God’s picture, with welcome, care, and safety, and particularly the stranger, as that is lifted up in each the Outdated and the New Testaments.” Learn extra of their highly effective remarks right here.
The USCCB “is one in every of 10 nationwide businesses, most of them faith-based, that serve refugees and which were despatched scrambling since receiving a Jan. 24 State Division letter informing them of a direct suspension of funding pending a overview of foreign-aid packages,” the AP experiences. “The lawsuit, filed within the U.S. District Court docket for the District of Columbia, notes that the resettlement program isn’t even international assist. It’s a home program to assist newly arrived refugees — who arrive legally after being vetted abroad — meet preliminary wants comparable to housing and job placement.”
These are primarily investments in our nation: analysis from International Refuge reveals that refugees contributed greater than $269 billion in tax income to federal, state, and native entities from 2005 to 2014. “Analysis additionally reveals that refugees boast excessive charges of entrepreneurship, outshining even that of different immigrants and U.S.-born residents.”
However the Trump administration’s freeze of appropriated funds has additionally stranded vetted refugees who had been cleared to journey to the U.S. and reunite with family members, nationwide and native faith-based refugee-serving businesses Worldwide Refugee Help Mission (IRAP), Church World Service (CWS), HIAS, and Lutheran Neighborhood Companies Northwest (LCSNW) mentioned of their Feb. 10 lawsuit difficult the suspension of program in its entirety. Amongst them was an Afghan refugee who was travel-ready when Trump handed down his order.
“When the Taliban took over Afghanistan I used to be a pupil on the American College of Afghanistan in Kabul. I used to be a peace activist and advocated for human rights and was evacuated together with different college students whose lives had been at critical threat,” Ahmed mentioned. “For the previous three years, I’ve been ready for the possibility to go to america and reunite with my sister and her household. I’ve not seen her since 2021 and I’ve by no means met my youngest niece. I used to be so excited to hitch them.”
The lawsuit from IRAP, CWS, HIAS, and LCSNW “argues that the refugee suspension, together with its chaotic implementation by federal businesses, is illegal and violates Congress’ authority to make immigration legal guidelines, and that the State Division’s stop-work orders violate primary regulatory necessities.”
Religion leaders from over two dozen Christian and Jewish teams have additionally sued over the current Trump directive making homes of worship susceptible to mass deportation raids, arguing that it’s “reducing attendance at worship providers” and “infringes on the teams’ spiritual freedom,” the AP reported on Feb. 12. The religion teams vary from “the Episcopal Church and the Union for Reform Judaism to the Mennonites and Unitarian Universalists” and characterize tens of millions of Individuals.
“Caring for the stranger is a spiritual obligation for Jews,” Rabbi Hara Individual, chief govt of the Central Convention of American Rabbis, and Rev. Sean W. Rowe, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, wrote in a Faith Information Service op-ed. “For many of Jewish historical past, Jews have moved from one land to a different resulting from exile, persecution or the hope of a greater future for the subsequent technology. Jews got here to america as immigrants and have supported and welcomed immigrants ever since. Jews have at all times heeded the commandment repeated 36 occasions within the Torah: an exhortation to look after the stranger as a result of Jews had been strangers within the land of Egypt.”
The Middle on Religion and Justice at Georgetown College, which partnered with the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Safety at Georgetown Legislation to file the lawsuit, is encouraging individuals of religion to signal a petition urging the Trump administration to reverse its choice rescinding the “delicate areas” memo.
Petition 👇Individuals of all faiths and traditions are talking out to inform Pres Trump and Congress: No immigration raids in homes of worship! Add your voice: www.sensitive-locations.com
Pope Francis’ extraordinary Feb. 10 letter led calls from all kinds of religion traditions talking out in opposition to and standing as much as the Trump administration’s merciless and chaotic immigration and refugee agenda, calling as a substitute for insurance policies that align with broader values and search to tamp down, as a substitute of inflame, concern and chaos.
“… the act of deporting individuals who in lots of circumstances have left their very own land for causes of maximum poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or critical deterioration of the setting, damages the dignity of many women and men, and of complete households, and locations them in a state of explicit vulnerability and defenselessness,” Pope Francis continued in his letter. “I exhort all of the devoted of the Catholic Church, and all women and men of excellent will, to not give in to narratives that discriminate in opposition to and trigger pointless struggling to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters.”
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