Border bishops call for immigration reform, reiterate support for migrants

A group of U.S. and Mexican bishops from dioceses along the southern border said this week that migrants can be assured of the Church’s continued support and compassion, and that lawmakers on both sides of the border have a duty to reform their respective country’s immigration system.

The bishops issued the statement while participating in the biannual Tex-Mex Border Bishops meeting this week in San Antonio, which for 40 years has brought together priests, religious, and laypeople as well as invited representatives from other border dioceses in the U.S. and northern Mexico.

The bishops emphasized the Catholic Church’s commitment to aiding vulnerable populations and reiterated the Church’s willingness to work with governments in these efforts. The bishops had convened this week in San Antonio to discuss the growing migrant and refugee situation in light of new federal administrations in both the U.S. and Mexico.

“We are all together responsible in promoting the common good, simultaneously safeguarding the dignity of all by finding the right balance between various human rights, such as the right of workers and their families to have their situation regularized, the right not to be exploited, the right to migrate, the right not to need to migrate, and the right of all to have their government guarantee security in their own country,” the Feb. 28 joint statement reads.

“For decades, we have expressed our concern that in the United States we have a broken immigration system, which does not correspond to the present reality. We hope and strongly urge our political leaders to fulfill their duty to reform it.”

“In this task that concerns us all, we need God’s help and we count on the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe,” the statement concludes.

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