Church leaders support migrants threatened by deportation plans, urge readiness to receive them

BUENOS AIRES (OSV News) — Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago reassured migrants in his archdiocese that reports of a possible mass deportation by a new administration in Washington that would target the Chicago area “wound us deeply.”

Priests in Chicago’s St. Rita of Cascia Parish in the city’s Chicago Lawn neighborhood stood in solidarity with local immigrants, inviting them for a special Mass in their intention Jan. 19.

“It is really important to be present to let people know, we will be there wherever we can to support them,” Father Larry Dowling told ABC 7 Eyewitness News.

According to ABC, priests blessed pastoral packs for families who may face deportation. The packs included a prayer shawl, rosary, and a statue of the patron saint of immigrants.

Right after Donald Trump’s swearing-in ceremony as the 47th president Jan. 20, his administration ended use of a border app called CBP One. A note appeared instead on the app’s website: “Effective January 20, 2025, the functionalities of CBP One™ that previously allowed undocumented aliens to submit advance information and schedule appointments at eight southwest border ports of entry is no longer available, and existing appointments have been cancelled.”

Nearly 1 million people legally entered the U.S. since the app has been introduced with eligibility to work.

Prior to Inauguration Day, the incoming administration threatened to further crack down on the border and carry out a deportation plan quickly — starting in Chicago, according to press reports. But “border czar” Tom Homan in a Jan. 18 interview told ABC News that because information was leaked that deportation efforts would begin in Chicago that could change.

Cardinal Cupich is among church leaders in Mexico and the U.S. who support migrants threatened by deportation and are urging a readiness to receive them.

Pope Francis, meanwhile, described then-still-President-elect Donald Trump’s deportation plan in a Jan. 19 Italian television interview as “a disgrace, because it makes the poor wretches who have nothing pay the bill” for U.S. problems.

“While we wish the new administration success in promoting the common good, the reports being circulated of planned mass deportations targeting the Chicago area are not only profoundly disturbing but also wound us deeply. We are proud of our legacy of immigration that continues in our day to renew the city we love,” Cardinal Cupich said in his Jan. 19 remarks at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, where he was participating in a pilgrimage.

“The Catholic community stands with the people of Chicago in speaking out in defense of the rights of immigrants and asylum seekers. Similarly, if the reports are true, it should be known that we would oppose any plan that includes a mass deportation of U.S. citizens born of undocumented parents,” he continued.

“For members of faith communities, the threatened mass deportations also leave us with the searing question, ‘What is God telling us in this moment?’ People of faith are called to speak for the rights of others and to remind society of its obligation to care for those in need. If the indiscriminate mass deportation being reported were to be carried out, this would be an affront to the dignity of all people and communities, and deny the legacy of what it means to be an American.”

During the election campaign, Trump ran on a platform that included a pledge to end illegal immigration and deport migrants without the proper papers.

Besides scrapping the CBP One smartphone application, the new president is expected to sign a series of executive orders related to the border on his first day in office, which include sending soldiers to the frontier with Mexico, according to Fox News. Others expected measures to include designating gangs and drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations” — a move opposed by Mexico.

More than 11 million migrants live in the United States illegally, according to Pew Research Center. An estimated 4 million of the migrants originally hail from Mexico, stoking disquiet in Mexico — especially in border cities, which are expecting to receive returnees, despite public security problems such as drug cartels targeting migrants for kidnap and extortion.

The Mexican bishops’ conference’s human mobility ministry has called for generosity from dioceses, parishes, religious orders and schools in receiving returned migrants.

“Let us put ourselves in the place of our migrant brothers and sisters and those who are deported; at the time of suffering the separation from their families, the uprooting and the collapse of years of sacrifices, work and dreams, they experience enormous pain, profound fear and terrible uncertainty,” read the Jan. 16 statement, signed by Bishop Eugenio Lira Rugarcía of Matamoros, director of the human mobility ministry, and Auxiliary Bishop Héctor Mario Pérez Villarreal of Mexico City, secretary-general of the conference.

“Let us pray for them and offer them the material support they need, while at the same time trying to integrate them into the community.”

President Claudia Sheinbaum has promised to “protect” Mexicans living in the United States through Mexico’s network of 53 consulates in the neighboring country. She also promised to welcome back any returned Mexican migrants with “open arms,” though she has stated Mexico does not want to receive non-Mexican migrants removed from the United States, as she acknowledged Jan. 4 such a scenario could occur.

The impact of Mexican migrants living in the United States is hard to overstate, however. Mexico received $59.5 billion in remittances from them over the first 11 months of 2024, outpacing the previous year’s total by nearly 3 percent, according to the country’s central bank. Remittances play an even greater role in Central America’s economies, accounting for 20 to 30 percent of GDP in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

“Honduras has 18 departments” — akin to provinces — “and they speak of department No. 19, being all the migrants in the United States who send daily remittances in dollars,” Father Germán Calix, a former head of Cáritas Honduras, told OSV News.

“This allows the economy to sustain itself,” he added. “It doesn’t make the leap to being a larger economy, but it does not fall into a greater poverty either.”

Father Calix said an estimated 100,000 Honduran migrants left the country in their first attempts at reaching the United States in 2024 — a figure he attributed to a lack of opportunities at home. “People do not have any paths for social advancement,” he said, adding that until there are opportunities for young people, “the flow of migrants to the United States will always be large.”

Migrants continued arriving in Mexico, hoping to enter the United States ahead of Trump’s inauguration. Most were contained in southern Chiapas state, trying to nab one of 1,450 daily CBP One appointments for entering the United States legally when the app was operable.

With the CBP One app, appointments were given three weeks into the future, meaning more than 30,000 migrants likely have dates for presenting themselves at authorized ports of entry, according to Jesuit Father Brian Strassburger, who ministers to migrants in the Mexican border cities of Matamoros and Reynosa, opposite the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

Father Strassburger celebrated Mass for migrants Jan. 19 in Matamoros, where he heard concerns from people with appointments after Trump’s inauguration. Many of those people arrived via government-sponsored buses from Chiapas with appointments. But he predicted, “They’re likely going to be stuck in these shelters” in border cities.

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