US Bishops Welcome Relief Measures for Immigrant Families

Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, M.Sp.S., auxiliary bishop of Seattle and chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Migration, welcomed the news today that the Obama administration will defer deportations for many undocumented immigrants and their families.

“We have a long history of welcoming and aiding the poor, the outcast, the immigrant, and the disadvantaged. Each day, the Catholic Church in the United States, in her social service agencies, hospitals, schools, and parishes, witnesses the human consequences of the separation of families, when parents are deported from their children or spouses from each other.”

Bishop Elizondo also said that US Bishops welcome relief and justice within the Administration’s authority to protect individuals and reunite families. He urged both Congress and President Obama to enact permanent reforms  that serve the best interest of the country and immigrants who seek refuge.

“We will continue to work with both parties to enact legislation that welcomes and protects immigrants and promotes a just and fair immigration policy,” Bishop Elizondo said.

Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz, archbishop of Louisville, Kentucky, and president of the USCCB  commented on the executive order, saying that there is “an urgent pastoral need for a more humane view of immigrants.” He also called for legal measures that “respects each person’s dignity, protects human rights, and upholds the rule of law.”

“As our Holy Father, Pope Francis, said so eloquently: ‘Every human being is a child of God! He or she bears the image of Christ! We ourselves need to see, and then to enable others to see, that migrants and refugees do not only represent a problem to be solved, but are brothers and sisters to be welcomed, respected, and loved,’” Archbishop Kurtz said.

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More information on the USCCB Office for Migration and Refugee Services can be found online: http://www.usccb.org/about/migration-and-refugee-services/