Rhina Guidos

The steep slope, appearing almost as a vertical line, is a stunning mark by the Trump administration on what was once a refugee program recognized around the world as a model to welcome the tyrannized and persecuted masses.

Pundits often dismiss "the Latino vote," saying Latinos don't vote uniformly and have members with a wide range of views. But both presidential candidates are courting Latino constituencies in battleground states.

U.S. organizations that work to resettle refugees fear that an upcoming battle with the Trump administration over the number of displaced people allowed into the country may be the fiercest yet.

Authorities in El Paso, Texas, have apprehended a suspect who is said to have entered the border city's St. Patrick Cathedral Sept. 15 and destroyed an almost 90-year statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Groups that support immigrants have lodged a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General saying that a nurse has come forward with detailed allegations of mass hysterectomies she said have been performed on immigrant women in detention in a Georgia facility.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit sided Sept. 14 with President Donald Trump's plan to end a particular immigration protection status that would have allowed people from six countries that have suffered disasters to remain in the United States.

On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, college student Aalayah Eastmond, of Trinity Washington University, spoke of her dream Aug. 28, at the place where iconic civil rights leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., delivered his famous "I have a dream" speech 57 years before.

Some of the few Masses available for Catholics in California's Bay Area came to a halt the weekend of Aug. 22 as bishops urged parishioners to pray for one another, for firefighters, and to stay home as air quality diminished in some parts of the state because of some of the largest wildfires in California history. 

Fr. Ricardo Cortez is the third priest killed in El Salvador in the last 18 months, and most of the country's bishops showed up to his funeral Mass to demand justice for the killing. 

He was surrounded by photos of fellow El Pasoans, who spent the last moments of their lives one summer evening a year ago, running for safety while shopping at superstore.

As the coronavirus pandemic commands global attention, for those working at organizations such as Catholic Relief Services, the health crisis is one in a long list of emergencies staff must tend to in its mission to help the world's poorest.

A firm that has filed previous legal complaints against former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick and church entities added another complainant July 21 against the defrocked prelate, leveling a new accusation that he allegedly abused its new client as a boy at a beach house in Sea Girt, New Jersey, in the early 1980s.

Schools and a Catholic parish in New Jersey expressed pain but also offered prayers following the killing of 20-year-old Daniel Anderl, son of a federal judge, who was a student at The Catholic University of America in Washington.

Catholic organizations and others who fear that proposed changes by the Trump administration will all but eliminate the asylum system rushed to meet a July 15 deadline to make their voices heard. 

The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston is asking for prayers for those who have contracted COVID-19, including its retired archbishop and its retired auxiliary bishop living in a priest retirement home of 18 residents.

Catholic organizations have joined others in protesting some of the latest immigration restrictions issued by the Trump administration, including a popular visa program now suspended until the end of the year.

A report by the Washington-based Refugees International organization charges U.S. immigration policy with helping the spread of the coronavirus in Guatemala, as federal agencies in the U.S. and Mexico have repatriated infected Guatemalans through deportations.

After calling for transparency and dialogue in the country, Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chavez, auxiliary bishop of San Salvador, found himself under attack, including being called a "Judas" and other names via social media.

The Washington-based American Immigration Council said restrictions issued by the Trump administration during the coronavirus pandemic are being used to implement immigration limitations White House officials have sought for a long time.

Chalatenango, El Salvador, is said to have been the setting of more than 50 mass killings during the country's 12-year civil conflict, and almost all of the survivors lost family members in other attacks.