Can the Catholic Bishops Find Common Ground on Trump Administration Immigration Reform? | The American Spectator

Escalating their attack on the Trump administration’s deportation policies and proposed cuts to Medicaid funding, twenty U.S. Catholic bishops signed on to an interfaith effort last week in an attempt to stop the passage of the “Big Beautiful Bill Act.” Calling it a “moral failure” of the Trump administration if the proposed legislation passes, the Catholic bishops were joined by an additional 20 progressive faith leaders of several faith traditions in their effort to encourage senators to reject the Act.
Organized by Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico — the harshest critic of the Trump Administration — the archbishop’s letter to the senators decried the “tens of billions of dollars to the government to undertake a mass deportation campaign which will separate U.S. families, harm U.S. citizens and immigrant children and sow chaos in local communities.”
Finding no consensus on immigration, the archbishop and the 40 faith leaders also criticized the funding allocated for a border wall along the U.S.–Mexico border. They argue that such measures will force migrants into more remote areas of the border, potentially leading to an increase in migrant fatalities. And they added that the wall would “hurt the local environment along the border and force desperate asylum seekers seeking safety to increasingly rely on human smugglers.”
Claiming in an interview with reporters from Our Sunday Visitor that the proposed legislation is “violating our Catholic social teaching in terms of a preferential option for the poor, welcoming the stranger in our midst, the common good, subsidiarity,” Archbishop Wester emphasized the moral imperative for compassion and justice. Despite the urgency of their collective plea, there seemed to be little hope for common ground.
However, on Sunday, President Trump opened the door to conversations about the possibility of a new immigration reform plan that could facilitate more productive discussions that could be more aligned with the conc…