Capitol Police arrest scores of Catholic nuns and leaders calling for immigration reform

“Scripture tells me that every person no matter their immigration status is a child of God and deserves to be treated with dignity."


Esther Yu Hsi Lee

Feb 27, 2018, 1:47 pm

Peaceful protesters took to the nation's capitol to advocate for immigration reform before getting arrested for acts of civil disobedience. (Photo: Heather Cabral/PICO Network)




Dozens of Catholic group and faith leaders were arrested on Capitol Hill Tuesday, after calling on lawmakers to support bipartisan immigration legislation that makes permanent protections available to Dreamers protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Ahead of a civil disobedience action in the Russell Senate Office Building rotunda during the “National Catholic Day of Action with Dreamers,” Catholic leaders spoke about the moral imperative to pass legislation that provides dignity to undocumented immigrants. The event, organized by PICO National Network and Faith in Public Life, intended to get congressional members to pass a narrow bill that would give legal status to certain undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children.

“Scripture tells me that every person no matter their immigration status is a child of God and deserves to be treated with dignity,” Sister JoAnn Persch said during a press conference prior to the event. “These young Dreamers are a gift to our country and I stand with them in this moment of truth. You can’t call yourself a person of faith and not act.”

Crowds formed a circle in the middle of the rotunda to pray the rosary, before Capitol Police arrested about 40 faith leaders — many of whom were nuns — peacefully singing gospel songs like “Amazing Grace.” They also chanted, “Paul! Paul! Why do you persecute me?” likely in a double-edged reference to Paul the Apostle who became a follower of Jesus after he stopped persecuting Christians, as well as to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R) who has control over what bills can be put on the House calendar. Their songs echoed through the cavernous hallways, with the only other sounds coming from the zip ties Capitol Police used to tie their wrists behind their backs. People in the upper level applauded as police escorted the last protester — a nun — out of the rotunda.

Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese, one of the individuals arrested, previously wrote of his planned arrest as “an expression of solidarity with ‘Dreamers.'”

Why U.S.-bound ‘caravans’ of Central American migrants are getting Trump’s attention

by Alex Horton April 1 at 6:16 PM

Trump: 'Mexico has got to help us at the border'


President Trump said Mexico needed to help secure the U.S. border after tweeting there would be "no more DACA deal" and threatening to "stop" NAFTA on April 1. (Elyse Samuels/The Washington Post)

In a three-tweet salvo Sunday morning, Trump decried recent struggles with congressional Democrats to reach a deal that would legalize the status of millions of “dreamers” — undocumented immigrants who were brought to this country as children.

“Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the Border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws like Catch & Release,” Trump said in his first tweet. “Getting more dangerous. ‘Caravans’ coming. Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW. NO MORE DACA DEAL!”

DACA refers to the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which Trump ended in the fall. The program had allowed dreamers to live in the country without fear of deportation.

Trump, a self-proclaimed “Fox & Friends” fan, appears to have fired off the tweets in response to a segment on the program in the morning (at least the National Border Patrol Council sees a connection, it claimed in a post afterward).

Senators And Evangelical Leaders Call For Action On Dreamers | NBC News

Bishop to Congress: Stop treating immigrants as 'less than human'

February 13, 2015 12:21 PM

Washington D.C., Feb 13, 2015 / 11:21 am (CNA).- Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tuscon, Arizona, leveled harsh criticism against the tone of some Congress members, saying that they were treating undocumented migrants as subhuman.

“I must say up front that the U.S. bishops continue to be concerned with the tone on Capitol Hill toward immigrants,” he stated to the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Enforcement in a Feb. 11 testimony.

“We do not agree with terms that characterize immigrants as less than human, since no person is 'illegal' in the eyes of God. Such harsh rhetoric has been encouraged by talk radio and cable TV, for sure, but also has been used by public officials, including members of Congress.”

Immigration has been a hot battle in Washington ever since President Obama, through executive action, expanded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in November. His action allowed millions of qualified immigrants to stay in the U.S. for up to three more years.

House Republicans responded by overturning the action within a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security. They have also just introduced three new bills that would strengthen law enforcement against undocumented immigration and overturn the DACA program.

Bishop Kicanas said that he represented the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in voicing opposition to the bills. His diocese stretches along the Arizona-Mexico border.

The bishop prefaced his testimony by recalling the example of the late American humanitarian aid worker Kayla Mueller, a hostage of the terror group ISIS who was confirmed dead this past week. Mueller, who hailed from Arizona, was helping refugees from Syria’s civil war before she was captured by ISIS.

“Kayla, who dedicated her life to the service of others, represents the best of our country’s values,” Bishop Kicanas said. “She spent her life and lost her life in attempting to help the most vulnerable, here and overseas. She felt the pain and suffering of others, and responded. We might learn from the example of a fellow American.”

The bishop then explained why he opposed the three proposed immigration bills, starting with their repeal of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

The bills “would repeal protections for children fleeing violence in Central America, and would keep children in detainment for long periods of time, and would weaken protections for abandoned, neglected, and abused children,” he stated.

“Our country is judged by how we treat the most vulnerable, and the removal of protection from children, the most vulnerable, flies against human decency and violates human dignity,” he said. “The removal of due process from these children seeking safety, as these bills would do, is like a fireman showing up at a burning building and locking the doors.”

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Obama to BYPASS Congress AGAIN to enact immigration reform measures

By FRANCESCA CHAMBERS

PUBLISHED: 14:46 EST, 30 June 2014 | UPDATED: 16:02 EST, 30 June 2014

President Barack Obama announced today that he would again go around Congress to enact immigration reform measures.

In a hastily scheduled statement this afternoon from the White House Rose Garden, Obama said he would 'greatly prefer' Congress pass its own legislation, rather than having to take matters into his own hands, but House Republicans have given him no choice.

'I don’t prefer taking administrative action,' he said. 'I take executive action only when we have a serious problem, a serious issue, and Congress chooses to do nothing.'

The president said he had directed his administration to 'refocus' is efforts on border security and said it would use its 'existing legal authorities' to do 'what Congress refuses to do' and fix the broken immigration system.




My way or the highway: President Barack Obama said today that in the absence of Congressional legislation addressing the U.S.'s broken immigration system, he would use his 'existing legal authority' enact his own reforms

The President said he expected recommendations from his administration on what he can do without Congress by the end of the summer.

It will still taken an act of Congress, however, Obama said, to truly reform the system, and Obama indicated that he had recently told House Speaker John Boehner as much.

'I’m going to continue to reach out to House Republicans in the hope that they deliver a more permanent solution with a comprehensive bill,' Obama said.

'Maybe it will be after the midterms, when they’re less worried about politics. Maybe it will be next year. Whenever it is, they will find me a willing partner.'

Obama said he'd be willing to look at legislation other than the version he supports that is stalled in the Senate.

'The only thing I can’t do,' Obama said, 'is stand by and do nothing while waiting for [House Republicans] to get their act together.'

'I believe Speaker Boehner when he says he wants to pass an immigration bill. I think he genuinely wants to get something done,' Obama said at another point in his remarks.

After Obama's announcement Boehner released a statement saying 'it is sad and disappointing' that the president 'won't work with us, but is instead intent on going it alone with executive orders that can't and won't fix these problems.

'In our conversation last week, I told the president what I have been telling him for months: the American people and their elected officials don't trust him to enforce the law as written.

'Until that changes, it is going to be difficult to make progress on this issue,' Boehner said.

The president's announcement comes two years after he went around Congress to change administration policy as it regards to how it treats young people who have lived in the United States since they were children.

The president's 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals executive order instructed immigration officials to stop deporting young people who had lived in the U.S. continuously since 2007 and had no criminal record.

That policy, Republicans claim, led to the current humanitarian crisis on America's border with Mexico.

Unaccompanied minors have poured into the border since DACA went into effect.

Many are coming from Mexico, but the majority are coming from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

The Customs and Border Protection agency expects 100,000 children to illegally immigrate to the Unite States by the end of the year.

Neither Obama's DACA directive nor his immigration reform legislation that is currently stalled in the Senate would apply to them, but more than 200 a day are coming to the U.S. anyway under the false assumption they will receive amnesty when they arrive.
Border enforcement officials have been overwhelmed by the flood of children, and detention facilities in the Rio Grande area in Texas are overflowing with teens and small kids awaiting deportation or other government action.

'The White House claims it will move to return these children to their families in their home countries, yet additional executive action from this president isn't going to stem the tide of illegal crossings, it’s only going to make them worse,' Boehner said today.

Boehner accused the president was 'giving false hope to children and their families that if they enter the country illegally they will be allowed to stay.'

In his remarks Obama said today that crisis on the border 'underscores' the need for immigration reform and called on House Republicans saying otherwise to stop coming up with excuses not to pass reforms.

'It makes no sense. It's not on the level. It's just politics, plain and simple,' he said of their refusal to pass reform legislation.

Obama denied that his past actions had provided encouragement for the mass migration of children, saying, 'I've sent a clear message to parents in these countries, not to put their kids through this.'

'The problem is our immigration system is so broken, so unclear,' Obama said, Central Americans don't know what the rules are.

The president said said 'maybe' Republicans will pass reform after the Midterm elections this November when they're less worried about politics, or maybe they will pass them next year.

In the meantime, Obama said would act on his own.

If Congress doesn't like it, he said, it should pass it's own legislation instead of trying to sue him, he said, referring to Boehner's announcement last week that the House would bring a lawsuit against Obama for repeatedly going around Congress to amend the law as he sees fit.

'Pass a bill; solve a problem. Don't just say no on something that everybody agrees needs to be done,' the president said.

'With the House of Representatives filing a lawsuit to curb Obama’s presidential overreach, you'd think this administration would get the message,' Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement harshly rebuking the president.

'Our Constitution is not a list of suggestions. Our Founders were not mistaken when they created three separate branches of government,' Priebus argued, citing recent Supreme Court decisions rolling back Democratic-supported legislation.

'[The president] wants a comprehensive immigration overhaul that's his way or the highway. But that doesn't give him the power to rewrite the Constitution or the law.'

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Thousands Still Need To Apply For DACA Program

 

by Ted Robbins

December 16, 2013 4:35 AM

4 min 20 sec

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The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program allows young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children to avoid deportation. They can also get a work permit for two years.


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