Rhina Guidos

Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, asked Vice President Kamala Harris June 25 to engage with the faith community as partners on a path to bring relief and a compassionate solution to immigration issues in the Americas and to "hear the voices" of those turned away at the border.

The Maryland-based Catholic Legal Immigration Network announced June 22 it is joining forces with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to help people who are "stateless."

Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, encouraged prelates meeting via Zoom for the U.S. bishops' virtual spring assembly to find ways to welcome what may be a growing number of immigrants to their dioceses and to serve them the way they would serve Christ.

A group of at least 162 organizations are asking bishops' conferences in the U.S., Central America and Mexico to "hear the cries of our brothers and sisters on the move and respond with bold leadership."

Pope Francis said the COVID-19 crisis has made it clear that human beings are valuable yet fragile, and it's important to keep that in mind when dealing with those fleeing from various crises in Central America.

A Vatican official asked a group of bishops gathered at Mundelein Seminary June 2 to think of migrants, whether they arrive for the short or long term, as "parishioners" and organize pastoral plans to tend to them.  

A June 7 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruled that hundreds of thousands of immigrants with a temporary immigration status cannot apply for a more permanent way to remain in the country if they first entered without authority to do so.

On the final day of a historic meeting of bishops and international Catholic organizations gathered at Mundelein Seminary outside of Chicago, they discussed the challenges the church faces even while trying to get Catholics to understand church teaching on migrants.

"This present moment invites a bold response from the church, grounded in the spirit and in fidelity to the Gospel," said Bishop Seitz. "No more than we can close our eyes to the evil of abortion, can we close our eyes to the suffering of our immigrant brothers and sisters and the disregard for their human rights."

The executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. said she hopes to see the Biden administration use the U.S. vice president's forthcoming trip to Mexico and Guatemala as opportunity to correct historic wrongs in the region.

After surviving the war in the late 1980s and pastoring to generations of working-class Salvadorans, Fr. Estefan Turcios, 70, died from COVID-19.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will host an emergency meeting with prelates from Central America as well as Vatican representatives June 1 and 2 in Chicago to set forth a path for the U.S. church's response to immigration.

Haitians with a special immigration status in the U.S. have been granted an extension so that they can continue to live and work legally in the country, or apply to do so.

After international outcry following moves that consolidated power over El Salvador into the hands of the president, the Central American country's Catholic bishops expressed worry and urged lawmakers to guide citizens into a "truly democratic state."

An expert witness testified to the "illegal" presence of a high-ranking U.S. military adviser who may have known about the plot to kill nearly 1,000 civilians who perished in El Mozote, El Salvador, nearly 40 years ago.

At the 51st annual Washington Conference on the Americas, May 4, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said four migrant families who remained separated under a Trump administration policy would be among the first to be reunited in early May by the Biden administration.

The Biden administration announced April 30 it would stop paying for construction projects along the southern border between Mexico and the U.S., which were being funded with money originally designated for the military.

Lawmakers aligned with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele voted May 1 to get rid of five of the country's top judges and attorney general, giving Bukele, in essence, absolute power over the three branches of government.

A recent analysis by The New York Times found evidence for what many Catholic organizations and other entities warned about at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States—the faster spread of the coronavirus among those detained in facilities for immigration violations.

The church is helping families in El Salvador who lost loved ones 40 years ago during the civil war. Fr. Manuel Acosta, is head of the Commission to Search for Persons Disappeared in the Context of the Armed Conflict.