Immigration and Migration

The Biden administration is reportedly weighing whether to reinstate a policy of detaining migrant families who cross the border without authorization, a practice President Joe Biden condemned and ended when he took office. Catholic immigration advocates have vocally opposed the policy as well.

The Biden administration Feb. 21 proposed its most restrictive border control measure to date, announcing it plans to issue a temporary rule blocking asylum-seekers who cross the border without authorization or who do not first apply for protections in other nations before coming to the United States.

Catholic organizations applauded the announcement of a new State Department program that allows groups of private individuals to directly support refugees resettling in the U.S.

In this first trip to the border since he took office, President Joe Biden, who is Catholic, sought to “assess border enforcement operations” and talk to those helping to manage “the historic number of migrants fleeing political oppression and gang violence in Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua and Cuba,” according to the White House.