Florida Catholic bishops call on Trump to suspend immigration raids for Christmas

Florida’s Catholic bishops on Monday appealed for a pause in immigration measures for the Christmas holiday, but the White House said operations would continue.

The appeal to the president Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was issued by Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski and signed by seven other members of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“The border has been secured,” Wenski wrote. “The initial work of identifying and deporting dangerous criminals has been accomplished to a large extent. More than half a million people have been deported this year, and nearly two million others have voluntarily self-deported.”

“At this point, the maximum enforcement approach of processing irregular immigrants en masse means that now many of these arrest operations inevitably sweep up large numbers of people who are not criminals but just here to work,” he continued. “It should be noted that a significant majority of those detained at Alligator Alcatraz have no criminal record.”

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He noted that migrant roundups sometimes include people with legal authorization to stay in the United States and that surveys show Americans believe immigration enforcement operations go too far.

“Ultimately, these cases could be resolved, but it takes several months, causing great grief for their families…A climate of fear and anxiety infects not only irregular migrants but also their family members and neighbors who are in the country legally,” Wenski said.

“Since these effects are part of the crackdown operations, we ask the government to suspend arrest and raid activities during the Christmas period,” he said. “Such a pause would show decent respect for the humanity of these families. Now is not the time to be insensitive to the suffering caused by immigration control. »

The White House did not directly respond to the call for a holiday pause, but said enforcement activities would continue as usual.

“President Trump was elected on the basis of his promise to the American people to deport criminal illegal aliens. And he is keeping that promise,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement to The Associated Press.

Wenski, like many other Catholic leaders, is a strong advocate for the humane treatment of illegal immigrants.

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In September, he joined other Catholic leaders during a panel at Georgetown University criticizing the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown for dividing families, inciting fear and upending church life.

Wenski also cited the contribution of illegal immigrants to the U.S. economy.

“If you ask people in the agricultural sector, in the service sector, in health care, in the construction sector, they will tell you that some of their best workers are immigrants,” Wenski said. “Repression will always be part of any immigration policy, but we must rationalize and humanize it.”

Wenski joined the “Knights on Bikes” ministry, a Knights of Columbus-led initiative that draws attention to the spiritual needs of migrants detained in immigration detention centers, including “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Florida Everglades. He remembers praying a rosary in the scorching heat outside the walls before receiving, a few days later, permission to celebrate mass inside the establishment.

“The fact that we invite these detainees to pray, even in this very dehumanizing situation, is a way of emphasizing and invoking their dignity,” he said.

Last month, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted a “special message” in which it blasted Trump’s action. mass expulsion program and the “vilification” of illegal immigrants, expressing concern about the fear and anxiety that immigration raids fuel in communities, as well as the denial of pastoral care in detention centers.

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The special message was approved by Pope Leo XIV and Archbishop Ronald Hicks, whom the pontiff recently named the next archbishop of New York, replacing conservative Cardinal Timothy Dolan as head of the nation’s second-largest Catholic diocese. Dolan announced earlier this year that he would step down at age 75, which is required by Catholic law.

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“I think we have to look for ways to treat people with humanity, with the dignity that they have,” Leo said last month. “If people are in the United States illegally, there are ways to deal with that. There are courts, there is a justice system.”

The pope has previously urged local bishops to speak out on their social justice concerns and suggested that those who support the “inhumane treatment of immigrants in the United States” may not be pro-life.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.