Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 15, 2025 / 12:53 pm (CNA).
With the Trump administration having “effectively achieved control of the border,” Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski is now urging the president and Congress to turn to expanding legal pathways for unlawfully present migrants who have committed no other crimes to obtain citizenship.
In a statement and interview with archdiocesan media, Wenski argued that the U.S. “faces labor shortages in many industries, including health care, service, and agriculture. Removing immigrant workers will only exacerbate these shortages.”
“Rather than spending billions to deport people who are already contributing positively to our nation’s well-being, it would be more financially sensible and more morally acceptable for Congress, working with the administration, to expand legal pathways for noncriminal migrants to adjust to a permanent legal status,” Wenski affirmed.
In an interview with La Voz Catolica, Wenski said that “what makes it cruel right now is the arbitrariness of this push to deport people who have already made a stake here — people who have put in sweat and effort to stay.”
“If the United States government has allowed them to remain for 10 or 20 years, you can imagine many have children who are American citizens, own homes, or have established businesses,” Wenski noted. “To simply tell them to ‘go back home’ — when there is no home back there, and their home is here — that’s what makes it cruel.”
Wenski also echoed Bishop Frank Dewane’s concerns about the new detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” which sits in Dewane’s neighboring Diocese of Venice, Florida.
Miami’s archbishop indicated that “from the moment this detention center opened, the archdiocese has requested access to provide religious services.”
He said Deacon Edgardo Farías, director of the archdiocesan prison ministry, visited the site to inquire about when they could celebrate Mass but was told the mosquito situation was very bad and to come back later.
“We wish to ensure that chaplains and pastoral ministers can serve those in custody, to their benefit and that of the staff,” Wenski indicated. “We also raise concerns about the isolation of the detention facility, which is far from medical care centers, and the precariousness of the temporary ‘tent’ structures.”
In the interview, Wenski said if the Trump administration’s deportations are enforcement of current laws, then “the laws must be changed” by Congress, which has the authority to “rewrite, adjust, or fix the law.”
“The vast majority of those here without permanent status are honest, hardworking people who simply want a future of hope for their children and their families,” Wenski added.
Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge and current fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, told CNA that Wenski’s call for a pathway to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally is a form of “amnesty,” which he noted “is one of those things the Trump administration said is off the table.”
Arthur, who is Catholic, said that current law already affords the types of accommodations for which the archbishop is advocating. For example, he said people can appeal a removal order on the basis that their deportation would cause “extremely unusual hardship” to members of their family who are American citizens.
He also argued that a pathway to citizenship would not address the labor shortage issues that Wenski raised. “There are both immigrant and non-immigrant visas that are available in order to accommodate those labor needs, but allowing individuals to remain in the United States unlawfully is unlikely to accommodate those labor needs,” Arthur contended.
Arthur also noted that Immigration and Customs Enforcement follows the Performance-Based National Detention Standards. In his experience as an immigration judge, he said immigration authorities have always “provided for pastoral care.”
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It’s premature to declare that the Trump administration has achieved control of the border. There’s been a few months of relative stability. But there’s unknowns out there, such as how the cartels will adjust their smuggling operations to the new conditions at the border. I doubt they will just give up; they’ll change how they get migrants across, and then the Border Patrol will have to adjust their operations in response. When the Border Patrol has successfully gone through several rounds of that, and the situation is still stable, then we can start feeling like the border is under control.
Also, Archbishop Wenski’s assumption that once the border is under control, we can go back and adopt policies and practices of the Biden administration doesn’t seem too realistic, as many American do not support what the Biden administration was doing. I am sure that’s what he and his fellow bishops want, but the old patterns and problems will return. For instance, creating “Pathways to citizenship” for illegal immigrants currently living here, whatever those “pathways” end up looking like, will only encourage more people to want to migrate here however they can (including being smuggled over the border) and get the same deal. That makes the job of maintaining control over immigration even harder.
The labor shortage, well, a big problem is that American citizens don’t want to work for the below-market wages that illegal immigrants accept, but those wages have become the norm in businesses thst employ them. They accept those low wages BECAUSE they are here illegally, but if they gain legal status, they lose the reason for doing so. So if there was a “pathway to citizenship,” employers will eventually have to raise wages to retain workers, at which point, American citizens will get more interested in those jobs, and the immigrants will have to compete with them.
Won’t? Or are not allowed to? Gov’t mandated minimum wages are real. I suspect that is partly the reason why we have companies hire workers under the table illegally–not every job out there is “worth” a living wage (or minimum), and not every small business owner can pay a such even if he needs help (whether full or part time.)
Meanwhile, the Vatican does not tolerate illegal immigration into its own territory. See how it threatens illegals:
Vatican Promises Stiff Penalties for Illegal Aliens Crossing its Border
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/01/16/vatican-promises-stiff-penalties-for-illegal-aliens-crossing-its-border
The Archbishop of Miami is operating out of his lane. The arena of politics and civic governance is NOT the bailiwick of priests and bishops but OF THE LAITY. The Archbishop needs to restrict himself to the teachings of the Church and instructing the Faithful in them. The implementation of the teachings of the faith is left to the prudential judgment OF THE LAITY. So, Archbishop, butt out.
Bishop Wenski says that we should, “expand legal pathways for noncriminal migrants to adjust to a permanent legal status.” But we have that. Every year we admit one million noncriminal migrants to our country and they get on a pathway to citizenship. What bishop Wenski is advocating is for those who entered our country illegally, and have thus committed a crime, to be treated the same as those migrants who followed the law.
However, as many other bishops do, he distorts the language to try and make his point. Look at the language of the bishops’ 2024 voting guide – “We must stand with newcomers, authorized and unauthorized.”
The bishops say that abortion is the pre-eminent issue. If we look at how much the bishops say on an issue, how many letters and documents they write on an issue, and how many marches and demonstrations they participate in, it would seem that illegal immigration is their primary area of concern.
The bishops also say that the ICE agents should treat the illegals they apprehend with courtesy. Yes, but at times this is hard to do when rocks and other objects are being thrown at them.