Families Separated at the Border

The court-ordered July 26 deadline to reunite families separated at the border has passed, but more than 400 children remain thousands of miles apart from their parents.

Some of migrant children under age 5 separated from their families by the government were reunited with loved ones July 9 with help from Catholic organizations.

New York: Outside the Cayuga House for Children in East Harlem July 11, members of the press gathered hoping to hear from a Honduran father who has been separated from his wife and three children after trying to seek asylum.

A small c catholic: One of my sisters emailed her siblings as this border-crossing story grew hot in the news. "I have a story about being separated from a parent," she told us.

The delegation will travel Monday to the border diocese of Brownsville, Texas, where bishops are expected to discuss the Trump administration's separation of families attempting to enter the U.S. illegally.

When White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked last week about widespread religious pushback to the Trump administration’s "zero-tolerance" policy separating families along the U.S.-Mexico border, she turned the responsibility back on people of faith.

At the Intersection: It was not that long ago that the United States was calling Native Americans names now being used against other immigrants crossing into the country. It was not that long ago that children were taken from their homes and forced to abandon their culture, forget their families.

Hundreds of American adults have called the Washington headquarters of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops seeking to provide foster care for immigrant children separated from parents.

Catholic Extension announced June 21 it has established a Family Reunification Fund as "a response to the human tragedy unfolding on the nation's southern border" with Mexico.

Just Catholic: Frightened, starving, poor people walk, they swim, they ride the seas in all sorts of vessels for a chance at freedom. And this is the pope's fault?

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday, allowing immigrant families to remain together, a pivot after officials spent days defending the administration's zero tolerance policy.

The Mexican bishops' conference has criticized the practice of U.S. officials separating migrant families, joining a chorus of condemnation south of the border as Mexicans react with outrage to the sight and sounds of children being confined in shelters far from their parents.

The country's Catholic bishops have joined a chorus of organizations, institutions and high-profile individuals urging the Trump administration to stop separating children from their parents.

The U.S. bishops began their annual spring assembly by condemning policies from the Trump administration that have separated families at the U.S.-Mexico border.

When news broke that 1,500 migrant children were missing, the response by people of faith was immediate, if somewhat ill-informed. It was an opportunity to remember the virtue of prudence.

Distinctly Catholic: The U.S. bishops seem clueless about their present moral situation. President Trump is attacking their spiritual children. Where is the united voice of the episcopacy in this country?

The San Diego Diocese is seeking a way to shelter asylum-seekers so they can remain with their children, according to Bishop Robert McElroy who celebrated a binational Mass June 9 at the U.S.-Mexico border.

We say: Making family separation a point of government policy is unacceptable and immoral. That is exactly what the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy is, and, according to the United Nations human rights office, is also "a serious violation of the rights of the child."

Since the administration announced a "zero tolerance" policy for illegal border crossings, resulting in family separation, 2,000 more minors have entered U.S. custody.

Many immigrants are Catholic, but many white Catholics voted for Trump and his anti-immigrant platform. And in the middle of the immigration crisis stand the American bishops.

A new U.S. policy that effectively leads to the separation of more families at the border is cruel and unjust, Catholic advocates and asylum experts say, condemning a plan that will cause immigrants added pain and trauma while offering no deterrence or prevention.