If I were to sum up in one word what I experienced when I read the “Special Message” on immigration released on November 12, 2025, by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, it would be “abandoned.”
I felt abandoned as an immigrant, a naturalized American, and a Catholic because that statement showed that the Catholic bishops of America cared more about illegal aliens and criminals than struggling legal immigrants, American citizens, the Catholics they are supposed to be shepherding, and the disorder and existential crisis from which our society is suffering.
“As pastors, we the bishops of the United States are bound to our people by ties of communion and compassion in Our Lord Jesus Christ, the bishops said. “We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement.”
I am an immigrant, I live among immigrants, and immigrants are not suffering “fear and anxiety.” Only illegal aliens are afraid because they are in this country illegally, they live outside the law and the bishops’ statement has condemned them to a life outside the law.
By disingenuously advocating for illegal aliens, whitewashing it under the label of immigration, the bishops have undermined their credibility and authority. You cannot abet illegal aliens in their law-breaking, thwart sovereign laws for years, and teach others to do so, and expect to have your authority respected within and without the Church.
The “dehumanizing rhetoric” they decry is the one they invite by standing for a crisis that is harming our society. Illegal entry, whether it is done by crossing the border or by overstaying a visa, is a corruption of law and order.
Any perceived undignified or inhumane treatment during the deportation process pales in comparison to the evil that flourishes by advocating for leniency toward illegal entry: this includes the danger in which unaccompanied children are placed; the thousands of children that the government has lost track of after entry; the abuse they suffer at the hands of those to whom they are released; gang affiliated older teens who illegally cross the border; sex and human trafficking of minors and others; the smuggling of drugs; infiltration by foreign terrorists who exploit the lenient entry system and the overstaying of visas.
These are not some made-up stories by immigration restrictionists. Immigration watch groups have been warning about the rise of criminality due to illegal alien entries for years. Leniency in this area has disordered our society.
If the bishops were truly concerned with the actual deportation process, here’s what they could have done: They could have released a statement that supports prioritization of the people of this country, acknowledges the seriousness of law breaking and criminality, the necessity of order in immigration enforcement, and advocates for the Church’s right to meet the spiritual needs of those that are detained. As DHS Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Communications Nathaniel Madden said, “Take Communion, take what you need… Just go through the process, work with us, not against us. And we’ll figure out a way to do this so that everybody’s dignity is respected and that everybody gets what they need.”
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Instead, the USCCB statement pits the Gospel against the right ordering of society, thus undermining the Gospel itself. The message of Christ is not only to be found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but the entirety of the Scriptures.
What the USCCB’s statement makes evident is that the Catholic bishops are for open borders, in direct contradiction of the overall teachings of the Catholic faith and the scriptures. It shows that the Catholic Church in America is incapable of being trusted to be the conscience of our public sphere, and thus leaving a vacant space where a host of evil can flourish.
Luma Simms is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center
