Posted February 25, 2018 at 10:27 AM | Updated February 25, 2018 at 10:28 AM
Last spring, Cardinal Joseph Tobin escorted Catalino Guerrero to the Federal Building in Newark for his deportation hearing. Guerrero, of Union City, was granted an extension to remain in the U.S. (Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
By Julie O'Connor
Star-Ledger Editorial Board
One week after Donald Trump's inauguration, Cardinal Joseph Tobin released a statement calling his immigration orders "inhuman," and "the opposite of what it means to be an American."
This grandson of immigrants, a man who speaks five languages and newly heads a diocese that speaks 20 – one of the largest in the United States – has welcomed refugees here from places like Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
After a public spat over international borders, Pope Francis and President Trump met last May.
(Photo by Osservatore Romano via Reuters)
He sees this as part of the American tradition. When the Irish, Italians and Jews were met by fear and prejudice, our "signature benevolence" ultimately won out, Tobin said.
"That confident kindness is what has made, and will continue to make, America great."
But now, he's deeply worried that this administration is gearing up for a mass deportation.
In an interview with the Star-ledger editorial board, the cardinal – one of just three Americans Pope Francis has named to such a high rank – joined the U.S. bishops to call on people of faith to protect the Dreamers. Below is an edited transcript.
Q. America's bishops called it "reprehensible" when President Trump ended the program that shielded Dreamers from deportation. Do regular Catholics have a duty to get involved?
A. I think so, while knowing there are Catholics who support the president's actions. I have to speak the truth as best I know it from God's word, and the tradition of our church.
In the Book of Exodus, God told the people of Israel: You don't persecute the alien among you, because you were once aliens yourselves, in the land of Egypt. Jesus takes it a step further in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25, when he suggests eternal consequences. On Judgement Day, he will say to people, "I was a stranger and you did not welcome me."
The Catholic church in the U.S. has always been an immigrant church. All of us, except Native Americans, have our immigrant story.
Q. What should people do?
A. Call your representatives on Monday, to say Dreamers should not be pawns in some wider game. They were brought here as children when they had no say in the matter, and don't really know any other country.
It's urgent, because of the March 5th deadline Trump set. Young people face the possibility of losing their ability to go to school, serve in the military, work legally, and above all, avoid deportation. The clock is ticking.
Q. Why do you say this administration is moving clearly toward a mass deportation?
A. If you look at their budget requests, for all the fuss about the wall and border security, the real action is reinforcing ICE, the immigration law enforcers who work inland.
You'll also see there's been a serious uptick in the appropriations requested for detention centers, and proposals to shorten the training period for ICE officers in order to get more into the field.
Q. In New Jersey, as many as 40 percent of those arrested by ICE last year had no criminal record. You helped lead a rally for one, a grandfather who's lived here more than 25 years. Is this really about "bad hombres"?
A. Absolutely not. If it were truly about threats to people's security, to their peace in the community, I don't think anybody would dispute that this is what law enforcement should do. But I think that's a rhetorical smokescreen.
Q. The head of ICE in Newark, John Tsoukaris, says they use their "discretion on a case-by-case basis for humanitarian concerns." Do you believe him?
A. I've met with him and heard similar words. I think he's a good man, but probably under a great deal of pressure because of the political agenda in Washington.
John Tsoukaris, Newark Field Office Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Ted Sherman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
Q. If you had Tsoukaris sitting across from you, what would you say to him?
A. First, I would sympathize with him: I know you're trying to do a job. However, I don't believe the caricatures that come out of the political rhetoric have anything to do with most people being detained in Elizabeth or Kearny.
If they fell afoul of the law, it may be for a traffic violation. I don't think deporting them is American, let alone a Christian thing to do.
Q. Do you believe Trump when he says he's a defender of Christian values?
A. If he is, he's highly selective about it. We Catholics often accuse each other of being "cafeteria Catholics," meaning we take what we want off the doctrinal shelf. Far be it for me to judge the president or anybody else. But actions speak louder than words.
Cartoon by Thomas Nast from "Harper's Weekly," September 1871.
Q. Given your Irish roots, does it bother you that Irish Catholics like John Kelly and Steve Bannon are among those characterizing immigrants as 'lazy,' criminals and terrorists?
A. Yes. I would just refer them to the rhetoric of the 19th century and the Thomas Nast cartoons that portrayed the Irish as drunken apes.
It hits close to home, because my grandmother immigrated when she was 17 years old, and came to Boston from County Kerry. I was born in '52, and in 1960 I was 8 years old. That's when a very prominent Irish Catholic was elected President.
I think in those days, most Catholics had a picture of John Kennedy next to the picture of the Virgin Mary in their home. But we never had one in our house, because my grandmother wouldn't permit it. This is because, on the boat to America, my grandmother befriended some other Irish girls who went to work for the Kennedys. They said the old man, Joe Kennedy, mistreated the maids. Her conclusion was that he forgot where he came from.
On the Day of Judgement, it won't be Jesus or a poor Bangladeshi refugee who will condemn us, if we forgot where we came from. It will be our grandparents.
Q. What was your experience with immigrants, growing up in Detroit?
A. Somebody once asked me why I like languages. It's because I grew up with kids who went home and spoke a different language. My grandmother would pray in Irish. I suspect she didn't think God understood English.
Q. Remember when Trump chastised Jeb Bush for speaking another language on the campaign trail? "This is a country," Trump said, "where we speak English, not Spanish." Your experiences suggest otherwise.
A. Even in New Jersey, I use three or four languages in a week. People can speak English and they have to, to survive. But when they pray and talk about their own struggles, they want to do it in their language.
Q. I understand you knew people who were deported and killed upon their return to El Salvador.
A. When I was a young priest, I was involved with a coalition that was trying to help get undocumented people from Central America into Canada, which would welcome them. Those who'd been deported by the U.S. during the Reagan years were being killed in war-torn El Salvador and Honduras.
It really is life or death. There's still great terror today. Parents tell me, "When I kiss my kids goodbye on the way to school, I don't know if I'll be there at night." We encourage them to put together a kind of will, so if they're taken, there will be some legal instructions about what happens to the kids. If they don't, they become wards of the state. Imagine that happening to a 14-year-old kid whose mother disappeared.
Jesus says, whatever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do to me. He and his family were refugees. They fled their homeland for Egypt, to escape the slaughter.
Q. Do you think Christians think about that today, when they hear about refugees?
A. I don't think all of us do. Sometimes the political rhetoric and ideology drowns out the gospel. That's also why we celebrate Lent. It's not just to drop a couple pounds. It's to listen a little more carefully to what God says.
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