On the last Sunday of September, the Catholic Church observes the World Day of Migrants and Refugees. This past Sunday, many members of the clergy in the United States decried the moral abomination of Donald Trump’s ongoing persecution of immigrants. And one, in particular, called for people of conscience to act.
Maybe I’m just all worked up about the topic, but I can’t remember the last speech that I found as powerful and stirring as the homily Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, the archbishop of Washington, delivered at a Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington. (You can read it here or watch it here.)
I think you will forgive me for quoting it at such length.
First, he established the essential moral underpinnings:
For us as Americans two great legacies form the call that falls upon us regarding the immigrant and the stranger in our midst.
The first of these is a religious call that comes from today’s first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy. Moses calls the people of Israel to remember that they had been slaves in Egypt, strangers in the land, homeless, victimized and outcasts. Moses instructs Israel to always keep this history at the forefront of their consciousness and let it fashion their most fundamental attitudes and actions toward the stranger and the alien, the orphan and the widow who might seek a home among the people of God…. This mandate suffuses the spirituality of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and the moral traditions of virtually every faith in the United States.
The second legacy that we as Americans enjoy is a reverence for immigration, which has built us up into the great nation that we love so deeply. It was not people of great wealth who came to our shores, but the poor and the dispossessed, those seeking freedom from oppression and opportunities to build new lives in this new land. In the words emblazoned on the Statue of Liberty, Emma Lazarus wrote that Lady Liberty cries out “with silent lips, Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free… Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.” There was a time when these words brought tears to every American. Now they are shunned, riddled with conditions, or ignored altogether because they remind us of what we have become.
Then he despaired not only about the suffering of immigrants, but the callousness of the American people
In the past 18 months our nation has cast aside both the spiritual and moral tradition of the Book of Deuteronomy and the centerpiece of American culture that our love of immigration and immigrants constitutes. They have been replaced by suspicion, division, cruelty and violence.
For the last year and a half, the people of the United States have witnessed the suffering of the undocumented in our midst, purposely and strategically magnified by our government, and for the most part, we have simply passed on by. …
We saw their suffering and the injustice of it, but we just crossed to the other side of the road and passed on by.
When the expansiveness of the net of deportation began to touch us more intimately, ensnaring mothers and fathers and children and families whom we knew, fellow parishioners and coworkers who exemplify all of the best qualities that our nation is so desperately searching for, we were deeply troubled. But in the end we told ourselves that I cannot save them alone. And emotionally we crossed to the other side of the road and passed on by.
And then he called for action to make it stop:
Jesus weeps all across our nation for the children who have been arrested, detained, transported to far-off centers with terrible living conditions, and cut off from their families.
For us as a nation we can pass by no more. We must stop, recognize the evil that is being carried out in our name, and fight every dimension of it. We must seek to convert our political representatives from tolerating this evil or replace them. We must shed our identities as priests and Levites and become like the Good Samaritan who recognized no boundaries in rescuing the victim by the side of the road. We must recognize that in abandoning the words of Deuteronomy and the Statue of Liberty we are losing our soul as a nation. And we must constantly see before us the families that are being broken apart, the fear that consumes the undocumented communities, the children who are in pain. We must act now and act together. For Jesus weeps, and he will continue to weep until we go to the side of the road, lift up the victim, embrace him and make his pain our own.
Wow, huh? Are you fired up?
More Critical Mass
In Miami, Archbishop Thomas Wenski spoke of our obligations to immigrants:
We are called to welcome, protect, promote, and integrate the new strangers at our own doors, just as we once hoped to be welcomed.
To welcome means letting go of fear-driven rhetoric and making space in our communities and our pews for the stranger.
To protect means standing as a shield for the vulnerable who arrive with nothing-no rights, no language, and no allies.
To promote means lifting up their human dignity, sharing their stories, and recognizing the immense gifts they bring rather than seeing them as a burden.
To integrate means tearing down the walls we build in our societies and replacing them with bridges of true belonging.
In St. Louis, Catholic clergy joined other faith leaders and immigrant rights groups to march in honor of two former local residents who were murdered after one was deported to his native Guatemala.
Glendy Marisol González de la Cruz and Nixon Giovanni Pérez Paz were found bound, gagged and executed in a Guatemalan sugarcane field shortly after Paz was deported and de la Cruz returned to the country to be with him. Their 14-month-old daughter was alive and crying next to her mother’s body.
Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski said in a statement:
Glendy and Nixon’s children are now orphans who face an even more uncertain future without their parents. The family was a beloved member of our archdiocesan community; their children received their first sacraments in our parishes, and they actively participated in charitable activities. Their story is tragic, and, sadly, it is also far too common.
And he, too, urged action:
As people of faith, we call upon our leaders to end the program of indiscriminate detention and mass deportation and establish a path to legal status for those currently without documentation. We ask that undocumented children living in the United States and adults who were brought by their parents to this country as children be provided a means of attaining citizenship. We pray that avenues be provided so mixed-status families who have long contributed to our communities and our country can remain together.
In Overland, right outside St. Louis, dozens marched in memory of their murdered former neighbors. Anthony Brannon, an Overland resident, told a reporter with TV station First Alert 4: “A traffic stop led to that chain of events that led to that tragedy. And for it to happen here in my hometown, I’ve been here 30 years. It really strikes hard.”
In San Diego, several thousand people packed Balboa Park in San Diego to mark the day. The San Diego Union-Tribune wrote that it “evoked vibes of a 1960s peace march,” with the crowd singing along to Bob Dylan and Beatles songs, and carrying signs saying “Child of God, child of immigrants” and “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
The Union-Tribune reported:
The crowd began the procession singing “We Shall Overcome.” An Aztec drummer in the back of a Ford pickup and a troupe of Aztec dancers led the front, followed by dozens of clergy and thousands of others. The crowd filled the street and spanned city blocks as they walked up and down Fifth and Sixth Avenues, next to the park.
Arrests by San Diego’s ICE division recently reached a new monthly high. In July, more than 1,900 people were detained.
Court Watch
A federal judge in Washington vacated a FEMA rule that called for 20% of a state’s counterterrorism funds to be withheld if the state did not conform its election administration to Trump standards. Judge Amir H. Ali wrote that election conditions “are not reasonably related to the explicit statutory purpose of the funding.” He explained that “the court does not question that this may be a laudable goal, but it is not a counterterrorism goal.”
A New York federal judge has issued a permanent injunction — unfortunately limited to the ICE holding facility in New York City’s Federal Plaza — ordering an end to the confinement of detainees “in overcrowded, squalid, and degrading rooms for excessive periods of time.” Judge Lewis A. Kaplan wrote that the conditions there were “inhumane and unconstitutional.”
Democratic Party leaders filed a lawsuit in Washington to block any deployment of ICE and other federal agents at the polls this November. The plaintiffs argue that “dispatching armed federal agents to the polls — or even threatening to do so — is forbidden by federal law.”
A federal judge in Maryland held DHS in contempt of court for deporting a man to El Salvador in violation of three court orders. Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher also ordered the government to return him.
There’s a stunning new development in the tale of DOJ misconduct during the failed prosecution of the “Broadview Six” anti-ICE protesters in Chicago. Sheri Mecklenburg, the prosecutor who was found to have engaged in misconduct before the grand jury, now says U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros himself “personally directed” her to pursue felony charges over her objections. The former defendants, who have good reason to think their prosecution was politically motivated, want Judge April Perry to order Boutros to turn over any communications between Chicago and DOJ in Washington. They also want a special counsel to investigate and potentially prosecute the prosecution for criminal contempt. Oral arguments are tomorrow!
So Many Protests
Clergy leaders of different faiths are leading an eight-day, 96-mile pilgrimage from the Mohave Desert to downtown Los Angeles demanding the shutdown of ICE detention facilities. The goal is “to draw attention and cry out for immediate action to end the deplorable conditions and deaths at the detention centers throughout California and across the country.”
An ICE surge in southwest Kansas has led to a slew of protests in the region — as well as complaints from the beef industry because of the many arrests at slaughterhouses. There were protests in Great Bend and several in Dodge City, including one outside the National Beef plant and another on Wyatt Earp Boulevard.
“Incredibly proud of my community,” one redditor wrote on the fourth straight day of protests in Dodge City. “Families have been torn apart right in front of children, and now we’ve seen what happens when we leave our decisions up to someone else by leaving power on the table,” the person wrote. “People are getting registered to vote. They’re angry.” There was also an ACLU rally in Wichita. And there’s more coming.
In Buffalo, N.Y., the Evict ICE campaign has been holding demonstrations outside a downtown building every week, calling on the building’s owner not to renew ICE’s lease. On Saturday, eight protesters were arrested for civil disobedience.
Multiple protests continue in Austin, Texas, over ICE’s shooting on Sept. 20 of a Venezuelan man. A Sunday protest drew about 160 people to the site of the shooting.
A spike in immigration enforcement in the Bismarck, N.D., area prompted a protest Friday in front of the federal building where protesters held signs with messages such as “Am I next or are you?”
So Desperate to Make a Case
I’ve written before about the lengths to which Trump’s government will go to find any excuse to throw anti-ICE protesters in jail. The Chicago Reader has a great story about how “authorities tapped into a network of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) and surveillance cameras operated by Chicagoland police while trying — ultimately unsuccessfully — to prosecute Marimar Martinez and Anthony Ruiz for interfering with immigration agents last year, according to court records.”
You may recall the case: Martinez and Ruiz had been following the agents around Chicago when Border Patrol agent Charles Exum swerved into Martinez’s car, then fired five shots into her. Federal prosecutors filed felony assault charges against her and Ruiz – NOT against the guy who shot her. (Sound familiar?) All their many lies unraveled under scrutiny, and a federal judge dismissed the case against Martinez and Ruiz last November.
End Notes
From the Washington Post: “Secretive group’s latest anti-Trump artwork placed in D.C. — and Greenland.” This time: Playable satirical video game consoles.
Tomorrow (Thursday, Oct. 1) from No Kings: A virtual Election Protection 201 class.
Get ready for the May Day Strong “Corporate Defection Week of Action” from October 3 to 11. “We’re calling on corporations, their CEOs, and local businesses to use their influence to defend free and democratic elections.”
And the next No Kings Day, a Nationwide Early Voting Day of Action is on October 17.
Thank you, truly, for bringing these homilies to our attention. Cardinal McElroy's was deeply moving to observe and certainly furthered my resolve to step up my own efforts.