By Daniel Payne
CNA Staff, Jun 25, 2025 /
13:24 pm
Bishop Alberto Rojas of San Bernardino, California, on Tuesday urged authorities to cease their aggressive arrests of immigrants in the state, with the prelate calling for immigration enforcement that “respects human rights and human dignity.”
The plea comes as the federal government under President Donald Trump continues its broad effort to arrest and deport unauthorized immigrants in California and throughout the rest of the country.
California has been at the epicenter of much of that enforcement. Pew Research Center estimated last year that the state is home to 1.8 million “unauthorized immigrants,” the highest number of any state in the country.
The federal government, meanwhile, has been boasting of its immigration raids in the state, describing in press releases its arrests of the “worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens” in Los Angeles and slamming what it called “sanctuary politicians” in states like California who “work to thwart” the work of immigration officers.
Last month Trump aide Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem reportedly pushed ICE agents to arrest 3,000 people per day. According to Forbes, “the Trump administration internally has set a goal of deporting 1 million people during Trump’s first year.”
‘It is not of the Gospel of Jesus Christ’
In his Tuesday message, Rojas noted the “change [and] increase in immigration enforcement in our region and specifically in our diocese.” San Bernardino is located about 90 minutes east of Los Angeles.
“Authorities are now seizing brothers and sisters indiscriminately, without respect for their right to due process and their dignity as children of God,” the bishop wrote of the immigration raids.
Speaking to immigrant communities bearing the “trauma and injustice of these tactics,” Rojas wrote that the Church “walks with you and supports you. We join you in carrying this very difficult cross.”
Rojas wrote that Catholics “respect and appreciate the right of law enforcement to keep our communities safe from violent criminals.” But the recent enforcement has gone beyond that, he argued.
“[W]e are now seeing agents detain people as they leave their homes, in their places of work and other randomly chosen public settings,” the bishop wrote. “We have experienced at least one case of ICE agents entering a parish property and seizing several people.”
The aggressive enforcement “is creating a tremendous amount of fear, confusion, and anxiety for many,” he wrote.
Describing those extreme methods as “not of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” the bishop asked political leaders to “reconsider and cease these tactics immediately, in favor of an approach that respects human rights and human dignity and builds toward a more lasting, comprehensive reform of our immigration system.”
It “is painful to see such division amongst God’s people at this moment,” the bishop admitted.
“This is not what he wants for us. Let us instead remember what we all share — our creation in his image and likeness. Let us look for God in one another.”
(Story continues below)
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Religious leaders have spoken out against the Trump administration’s immigration policy in the months since the Republican leader took office in January.
In February more than two dozen religious groups sued the White House over its policy allowing immigration officers to arrest suspected illegal immigrants in houses of worship and other “sensitive locations.”
The groups said the policy had the effect of “substantially burdening” religious worship, since many immigrant parishioners were avoiding worship altogether.
In a similar case filed around the same time, a federal judge ruled in February that the government would not be permitted to conduct unrestricted arrests of suspected unauthorized immigrants at some religious sites while the lawsuit plays out in court.
Daniel Payne is a senior editor at Catholic News Agency. He previously worked at the College Fix and Just the News. He lives in Virginia with his family.
