DENVER-- The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is hosting a national call-in day Monday to ask parishioners to call their members of Congress and ask for humane immigration reform that protects Dreamers.
Priests across the country took that message to their congregations over the weekend and asked them to participate.
The idea started when bipartisan talks about immigration reform broke down on Capitol Hill.
“A number of our bishops got very concerned that these good people, as of March 5, would begin to systematically lose their right to work and the right to be in this country,” said USCCB Executive Director Bill Canny. “We thought that a call-in day would be the best expression of our concern at this time.”
March 5 is the deadline President Trump set for Congress to come up with a solution for those protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
However, federal courts have blocked Trump's order, meaning there could be some protections beyond the deadline. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that it will not take up a Trump administration appeal to that ruling.
For the USCCB, however, this issue goes beyond politics.
“We regard it as a human issue, as an issue of passion and concern for young people in this country who were brought by their parents and who have lived here for many, many years,” Canny said.
Canny pointed to stories of migration in the Bible, such as that of Mary and Joseph, as a good reference for what the church’s stance should be.
“We’ve been exhorted over time in the Bible, certainly, to welcome the stranger and to be wary that the stranger among us might be an angel,” he said.
More information about the national call-in day can be found here: http://www.usccb.org/news/2018/18-042.cfm
