By The bishops issued a statement this week emphasizing the Catholic Church’s unity and solidarity with the poor, vulnerable and migrants.
Bishops from the United States, Canada, and Latin America met this week in Tampa, Florida, to discuss various issues of common interest, including migration, and to develop a coordinated response to these and other challenges, emphasizing that “no migrant is a stranger to the Church.”
Eleven bishops representing the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), and the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (CELAM) participated in a meeting of “prayer, dialogue, and pastoral discernment” Feb. 15-17, according to ADN Celam.
In addition to migration, the bishops discussed the poor and vulnerable, the dignity and rights of indigenous peoples, human trafficking, and the growing polarization “that wounds public discourse and weakens social cohesion.”
At the conclusion of the meeting, the bishops released a “Message to the People of God on Pilgrimage in the Americas,” in English and Spanish, in which they emphasized that there is “one Church on pilgrimage throughout the Americas.”
After emphasizing their commitment to providing “coordinated, compassionate, and profoundly evangelical responses” to these challenges, the bishops highlighted their renewed “commitment to walk together in a synodal way as a Church that embraces the north and south of the continent, bearing clear and consistent witness to Jesus Christ.”
In every migrant is ‘the very face of Christ on the move’
The bishops specified that “in every person who leaves their homeland seeking safety, opportunities, or dignity, we recognize a brother, a sister; we recognize the very face of Christ on the move.”
Bishops of the United States, Canada, and Latin America in Tampa. Credit: CELAM.
“Human mobility cannot be reduced to a merely political or economic issue; it is a profoundly human reality that challenges our Christian conscience and the ethical responsibility of nations,” they emphasized.
In this regard, the prelates invited “civil authorities to promote policies that safeguard the lives, rights, and dignity of migrants.”
“We recognize the responsibility of States to regulate migration and ensure the common good; however, we reiterate that all legislation must place at its center the inalienable dignity of the human person and the respect that person deserves,” they stated.
The group expressed a desire that “the Church may be a concrete sign of hope, a place of welcome, and protection” for migrants.
The bishops encouraged living unity “in a concrete and daily way: in the generous welcome of migrants, in the defense of the most vulnerable, in respectful dialogue even amidst differences, in the patient building of bridges.”
One Church in the Americas
“We are one Church in the Americas. From this unity, we wish to serve with greater dedication, to accompany with greater closeness, and to proclaim with renewed courage the hope that springs from the Heart of the Savior,” the bishops emphasized.
In closing, they entrusted their renewed commitment to the Virgin Mary, asking her to “sustain us in communion and inspire us to respond together, with charity and evangelical courage, to the challenges of our time.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
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The bishops position contradicts the Pope’s Vatican punishments against illegal aliens: “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 bishops also harm and even endanger us. They want to protect people whose first moral act in the U.S. is to disregard and violate our laws by entering illegally; then lowering wages for Americans, crowding schools, overtaxing health systems, raising rents and housing costs, with 50% OF ILLEGAL ALIEN FAMILIES ON WELFARE, far higher than the average for non illegals (see below the information), not to mention the STEALING OF BILLIOS OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS AS IN MINNESOTA AND CALIFORNIA (see information below), or “non-violelnt crimes” such as DWI, fraud, theft, identity theft, drug trafficking, child pornography possession, and some forms of human trafficking and child molestation or the horrible crimes, such as:
An illegal alien accused of raping and murdering 13-year-old Oscar Hernandez last year in the sanctuary state of California has been hit with additional child rape charges involving two other teen boys.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/02/12/sanctuary-california-illegal-alien-hit-with-more-child-rape-charges-after-allegedly-murdering-boy/
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is seeking custody of an illegal alien accused of violently raping an 11-year-old girl at knifepoint in front of her younger sister in Georgia
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/01/28/ice-seeks-custody-illegal-alien-accused-raping-11-year-old-girl-knifepoint/
ICE Agents Arrest Illegal Aliens Convicted of Child Abuse, Manslaughter, Sex Crimes “While the media and sanctuary politicians continue to ignore American victims of illegal alien crime, our officers were arresting criminal illegal aliens,” the Department of Homeland Security’s Tricia McLaughlin said:
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/02/18/exclusive-ice-arrests-illegal-aliens-convicted-child-abuse-manslaughter-sex-crimes/
Sep 11, 2025 … A 37-year-old illegal alien from Cuba is in the Dallas County jail after he allegedly decapitated a man at an area motel.
Five-Time Deported Illegal Alien Charged with Kicking Baby to Death
Breitbart › Politics › 2019/04/25
Apr 19, 2025… A five-time deported illegal alien has been arrested and charged with kicking a four-month-old baby to death in Shelby County, Tennessee.
THE OFFICE OF THE TENNESSEE DISTRICT ATTORNEYS GENERAL CONFERENCE HAS RELEASED ITS ANNUAL STATE IMMIGRATION REPORT REVEALING THAT IN 2025, ILLEGAL MIGRANTS COMMITTED 2,183 VIOLENT OFFENSES, INCLUDING 41 HOMICIDES, 145 SEXUAL OFFENSES, 11 CHILD RAPES, AND MORE. Tennessee Releases Staggering Stats on Migrant Crime
https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2026/02/02/tennessee-releases-staggering-stats-migrant-crime/
Mecklenburg County, NC: Arnol David Guebara is accused of kidnapping, drugging, and sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl he met on Instagram for nearly three months from November 2024 to January 2025. He is now back in custody and on an immigration detainer hold after being released on bond last year. His bond was revoked after failing to appear for a court date. Guebara Is charged with Statutory Rape, Indecent Liberties with a Child, and Kidnapping.
https://x.com/ImmigrantCrimes/status/2022319629964583173
Over Half of Immigrant Households Are on Welfare, Far Surpassing American Households
More than half of immigrant-headed households are on one or more forms of taxpayer-funded welfare, far surpassing the welfare use of native-born American households, newly released analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies revealed.
JOHN BINDER
5 Feb 2026, 3:25 PM PST1,523
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is seeking custody of an illegal alien accused of raping three children in Asheville, North Carolina. Juan Ramon Juarez-Talamantes, a 29-year-old illegal alien from Mexico, has been arrested by the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office and charged with three counts of statutory rape.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/02/11/north-carolina-ice-agents-seek-custody-of-illegal-alien-accused-of-raping-three-children/
Previously-Deported Illegal Out on Bail for Heinous Child Sex Crimes Caught at Airport in Sanctuary Oregon
Infowars.com ^ | February 12th, 2026 7:31 AM | Dan Lyman
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4366607/posts
Truck Driver Allegedly Behind Fatal 8-Car Accident Identified as illegal…
Breitbart › Immigration › 2025/10/22
Border chief Tom Homan says ICE has found over 3,000 missing migrant children in Minnesota
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/border-chief-tom-homan-says-ice-has-found-over-3000-missing-migrant-children-in-minnesota/
ICE Asks Miami to Not Release Criminal Illegal Alien who Violently Sexually Assaulted Uber Driver Before Causing Vehicle Crash in Miami
Release Date: February 6, 2026
Oct 22, 2025 … The suspected semi-truck driver behind an eight-car accident in California has been identified as an illegal alien from India.
Obama Judge Refuses to Give More Jail Time to Illegal Alien Who …
Breitbart › Politics › 2025/12/15
Dec 15, 2025 … A judge is refusing to add additional jail time to a sentence for a seven-time deported illegal alien convicted of raping a disabled woman.
Report: ICE Arrests 101 ‘Dangerous’ Illegal Alien Truckers … – Breitbart
Breitbart › Immigration › 2025/12/23
Four More Americans Killed by Illegal Alien Trucker in Indiana
Four more Americans have been killed by the open-borders policy supported by President Joe Biden, Democratic politicians, and many anti-ICE activists in Minneapolis and other cities.
NEIL MUNRO
5 Feb 2026, 12:12 PM PS
Dec 23, 2025 … There are now reportedly 101 fewer illegal alien truck drivers on California highways following a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement …
Illegal Alien Accused of Random Shooting Spree on Tennessee …
Breitbart › Politics › 2025/05/02
ICE Arrests Over 145 Illegal Alien Truck Drivers on Indiana Highways
Breitbart › Politics › 2025/10/30
Oct 30, 2025 … Of those arrests, 146 illegal aliens were driving semi-trucks and more than 40 had been issued Commercial Driver’s Licenses. The states that
10 Years Later: Illegal Alien Who Killed Sarah Root Gets 20 Years in Prison
The illegal alien convicted of killing Sarah Root the night she graduated from college has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
JOHN BINDER
3 Feb 2026, 10:47 AM PST21
May 2, 2025 … Enoc Martinez, a 24-year-old illegal alien from Honduras, was arrested in Shelby County, and charged with five counts of attempted first-degree …
Sanctuary State Illinois: Illegal Alien Accused of Killing GOP Elected …
Breitbart › Politics › 2025/10/30
Oct 30, 2025 … Police say that 34-year-old illegal alien Edwin Pacheco-Meza of Honduras was driving a van on Oct. 24 when he crossed the center lane and struck …
ICE Busts Illegal Alien Pedophile Ring in Minneapolis – Breitbart
Breitbart › Politics › 2025/07/09
Jul 9, 2025 … Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested several illegal alien pedophiles and sexual offenders in Minneapolis.
Illegal Alien Accused of Killing 23-Year-Old National Guardsman …
Breitbart › Politics › 2025/11/19
https://www.breitbart.com/crime/2026/01/23/jd-vance-california-fraud-dwarfs-theft-federal-funds-minnesota/
California Fraud by Illegals Dwarfs Theft of Federal Funds in Minnesota by illegals
Vice President JD Vance revealed this week that about $7 billion worth of Small Business Administration (SBA) fraud has been discovered in California, an indicator the theft of federal funds across all departments in the Golden State could well exceed any other state’s. I think we have a fraud problem that is much worse in California than it is in Minnesota,” Vance said in an interview Thursday with Newsmax.
He continued, “I was talking actually to our small business administrator and I think she found probably a half billion dollars of fraud in Minneapolis and the broader Minnesota area. I think she’s found 7 billion dollars worth of fraud in California.”
Federal prosecutors have estimated that the total amount for Minnesota could top $9 billion in total, but that includes multiple federally funded programs such as food stamps, health care, and social services.
Since President Donald Trump took office, the sanctuary state of California has released more than 4,500 illegal aliens, several convicted of crimes like murder and child sex crimes, into communities rather than turn them over to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Sanctuary State California Has Freed 4,500 Illegals from Jail, Including Killers and Sex Offenders
Two Violent Criminal Illegal Aliens Charged with Rape, Aggravated Sodomy, and Kidnapping of Woman in Kansas
Release Date: August 20, 2025
https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/08/20/two-violent-criminal-illegal-aliens-charged-rape-aggravated-sodomy-and-kidnapping
ICE arrests violent criminal alien after sanctuary jurisdiction released him despite immigration detainer
Officers with ICE Baltimore arrested Rafael Aguilar, a criminal illegal alien from Honduras who was charged with attempted murder and convicted of second-degree assault after stabbing a victim in the back as the victim was walking home on April 19, 2025.
Prince George’s County released a criminal illegal alien charged with attempted murder and later convicted of assault
https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-arrests-violent-criminal-alien-after-sanctuary-jurisdiction-released-him-despite
ICE Urges Charlotte Officials Not to Release Illegal Immigrant Charged in Stabbing Ex-Girlfriend
ICE said it lodged an immigration detainer immediately after he was arrested to ensure he is not released back into Charlotte neighborhoods without federal notification. By
Rudy Blalock|
Published: 2/10/2026, 4:07:10 PM EST
https://www.ntd.com/ice-urges-charlotte-officials-not-to-release-illegal-immigrant-charged-in-stabbing-ex-girlfriend_1125315.html
Per multiple federal sources, a semi truck driver arrested yesterday after allegedly running a red light in Hendricks County, IN and crashing into another driver, killing him, is an Indian illegal alien who was caught and released at the border in 2018 by the first Trump administration. I’m told he was a minor at the time.
https://x.com/BillMelugin_/status/2024504447527727362
“This tragedy comes less than two weeks after another illegal alien driving a semi truck killed four innocent people in Indiana. It is incredibly dangerous for illegal aliens, who often don’t know our traffic laws or even English, to be operating semi-trucks on America’s roads. These tragedies are 100% preventable and we pray for the family and victim.”
https://x.com/BillMelugin_/status/2024506565634437376
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the arrest of a Liberian national who was in the United States illegally, and who was working as a Minnesota correctional officer.
https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2026/02/19/ice-arrests-liberian-illegal-alien-working-as-minnesota-corrections-officer/
Sadly, I never hear the Bishops speak with concern about the “rights and dignity” of the American citizens who are taken advantage at every turn by these illegals. About the hospitals filled to capacity by non-payers and the crowded schools where the teacher must cheat American kids out of an education to focus on the ones who cant understand English. About the back-breaking tax load this puts on American citizens. Americans can be the most generous of people in the world to those who need a hand. But if you are breaking our laws, cheating us (Minnesota Somalis) and hurting our people—not so much. The Bishops need to change their thinking before they have NOBODY left in the pews.
They used to speak about the dignity of the worker. Now the worker is a beast of burden.
When I was a stranger and homeless, you welcomed me – says the Lord. The doors of the church and the hearts of the doorkeepers offer hope to pilgrims and migrants on journey.
Are you welcoming strangers into your home? Or just demanding somebody else’s country be overrun with foreigners who refuse to adapt, assimilate or produce? Leaving your home doesn’t make you homeless.
“Mark you this, Bassanio,
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart:
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!”
-Antonio
Scene Three Venice, The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare
The Bishops who can’t manage their Dioceses or adequately fund the retirement plans of their employees really should not have to much to say about the prudential matters of economic capacity.
Then again you wrote this on your faculty page.
“Nowadays I am looking at processes such as world-forming, world-building, and world-making joint-attempts of persons combating leprosy, and their human/non-human allies.”
We’re not talking about pilgrims and migrants. We’re talking about criminals who broke the law to be here.
Migrants are not homeless. They had homes, families, communities, and nations, which they freely chose to leave.
Listen to yourself talking scripture without understanding. Satan himself knows it too.
JESUS found no home on earth, and I daresay He wanted none, else he would have stayed in form other than His Spirit, His Church, and His Eucharistic Presence.
The migrants who try to enter the Vatican illegally are certainly treated as strangers.
The bishops are now issuing statements on immigration almost daily. None of them deal with the issue in an honest or thoughtful way. Any opposition is attributed to the foulest of motives, as if their are no legitimate or substantive reasons for favoring restrictive policies. I have only read summaries and reviews of The Camp of the Saints, but I can say that Jean Paul Raspail was prescient almost to the point of having a crystal ball. The treason of the hierarchy is indistinguishable from that of the rest of the Western ruling class.
Conceivably, is it the deification of the migrant? The sanctification of a worldwide trend, and its subsequent dissolution of national borders and cultures? Fratelli Tutti the new Gospel?
Bishops of the Americas. Are you sloganeering a bright, new social ideology having failed with the Gospels of Christ? Saints Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria, Charles Borromeo. Where art thou?
Fr. Morello, you write: “Are you sloganeering a bright, new social ideology having failed with the Gospels of Christ?” Didn’t you know they majored in Political Science, not Theology?
In every migrant is ‘the very face of Christ on the move’
Really?
Kenneth Moreno Guzman of Mexico was arrested by the Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office and charged with rape, statutory rape, aggravated child molestation, aggravated sodomy, first-degree cruelty to children, first-degree home invasion, false imprisonment, burglary, aggravated assault with a knife, and possession of a knife during the commission of a crime.
On January 12, police allege, Guzman broke into an 11-year-old girl’s home and raped her at knifepoint in front of her 10-year-old sister. Guzman allegedly threatened the victim’s sister with the knife as well.
Officials also revealed that Guzman had been arrested in Statesboro, Georgia, in March 2023 for driving without a license and registration.
“We recognize the responsibility of States to regulate migration and ensure the common good; however…”
There is always the “However” which negates the previous statement. The bishops do not distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants. Occasionally they let the cat out of the bag when they say the immigration reform they want is to have a path to citizenship for all immigrants (and that would be illegal as well as legal).
Opposing the deportation of illegals seems to be their preeminent issue.
I know a man who served in the military during the Vietnam era. We were discussing the military in the context of some issue of thew day and he told me he doesn’t trust anybody above the rank of Colonel. When I asked why, he said that being a General or Admiral means Presidential Appointment and congressional approval-that favors people who attract attention, spew the party line, write long reports, use the right language, kiss the right backsides and don’t rock the (wrong) boat-in other words, master bureaucrats, not warriors.
I can’t help but thing the episcopacy is filled with wannabee admirals and generals. It would be a tolerable thing if they adhered to authentic Catholicism as the party line, instead they fixate on libertarian dogma when it comes to open borders.
Crusader: I say we deport the bishops and keep the immigrants 😉
Catholic bishops need to more carefully examine what exactly is the mission of the Catholic Church. They need a refresher course.
The bishops indicate “…their renewed commitment to walk together in a synodal way….”
If they keep talking like that, we’ll continue to know more tragicomedy.
So all I have to do bishops, to be welcome in your Catholic Church, is to illegally enter into any country in the world that does not want me to break their laws?
I would have one more question for the bishops. If migrants are not strangers in your Catholic Church, who would be the strangers? Apparently it must be any heretic who doubts that Christ came to teach us that passports and national boundaries are evil?