A Roman Catholic bishop has criticized the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts, which he says have included federal agents entering a parish property to detain several people.
In a letter to parishioners who attend mass in the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino in San Bernardino, California, posted to Facebook Tuesday, the Mexican-born Bishop Alberto Rojas commented on the “change and increase in immigration enforcement in our region and specifically our diocese.”
“Authorities are now seizing brothers and sisters indiscriminately, without respect for their right to due process and their dignity as children of God,” he said.
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Rojas assured “our immigrant communities who are bearing the trauma and injustice of these tactics that your Church walks with you and supports you,” adding, “We join you in carrying this very difficult cross.”
“While we surely respect and appreciate the right of law enforcement to keep our communities safe from violent criminals, we are now seeing agents detain people as they leave their homes, in their places of work and other randomly chosen public settings,” he continued.
“We have experienced at least one case of [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents entering a parish property and seizing several people,” Rojas added.
Diocese of San Bernardino Director of Communications John Andrews identified the parking lot of St. Adelaide Church in Highland as the site of ICE enforcement activity on Friday that resulted in the detention of multiple people who were neither employees nor parishioners of the parish. They were reportedly chased onto the property.
Andrews also told local media that ICE agents took a male parishioner at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Montclair into custody Friday.
Rojas said immigration enforcement caused “a tremendous amount of fear, confusion and anxiety for many” and contends the federal government’s actions are “not of the Gospel of Jesus Christ — which guides us in all that we do.”
Rojas urged “all political leaders and decision-makers to please reconsider and cease these tactics immediately, in favor of an approach that respects human rights and human dignity and builds toward a more lasting, comprehensive reform of our immigration system.” The church leader also weighed in on the anti-immigration enforcement protests that resulted in President Donald Trump deploying National Guard troops to quell the violence that erupted in major cities in California.
“I call on all protesters to act WITHOUT vulgarity, violence toward others, or destruction of property,” he wrote. Rojas warned that the deployment of National Guard troops and military personnel “seems only to increase the level of anger and fear of violence in the streets.”
The reported immigration enforcement at churches in the Diocese of San Bernardino comes five months after the Trump administration rescinded the United States Department of Homeland Security’s policy limiting the deportation of illegal immigrants in so-called “sensitive areas” in a directive issued after Trump’s second term began in January.
DHS defended the policy change in a statement at the time, insisting that “Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s churches and schools to avoid arrest.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
