The unknown future of immigration policy has sparked concerns in parishes with large populations of immigrants, both undocumented and documented.
In these times, parishes and Catholic agencies such as Catholic Charities hope to embody the Gospel parable of the Good Samaritan by providing care for those in the immigrant community.
“We’re talking about neighbors who have been here for 20 and 30 years, who have made their life here, who not only have their children here now, but their grandchildren, that they’ve been a part of the fabric of this country and made this their home for decades,” said Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski, C.Ss.R., auxiliary bishop and vicar for Hispanic Catholics.
He warned that prioritizing enforcement without comprehensive immigration reform will lead to recurring challenges. At the same time, he noted that most people of goodwill support the detainment and deportation of violent criminals.
“I think most folks are saying we need to be responsible about maintaining our borders and making sure that those people who are dangerous and committed serious crimes should not be mixing in with the rest of us where they can hurt and harm people,” Bishop Lewandowski said. “But I would be strong on saying enforcement as we’re seeing it today – without a commitment to very serious and comprehensive immigration reform – is futile.”
Bishop Lewandowski spoke a few weeks after President Donald J. Trump issued executive orders that affected immigration policy and enforcement Jan. 20, the day of his second inauguration.
Under a “protected spaces” policy change enacted Jan. 20, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are allowed to enter schools and churches, where they had not been allowed for decades. That leaves the possibility that agents could interrupt a Mass.
ICE did not supply an official statement to the Catholic Review. But on Feb. 4, Maryland ICE director Matthew Elliston told WBAL radio that ICE agents don’t plan to go to what were formerly considered sensitive or protected locations to arrest people.
“We are not going to schools,” Elliston said. “We are not going to churches to target people. The one thing I want to be clear about with everybody is that we do not target victims of crime.”
The previous policy already had exceptions for criminal activities, such as an ongoing police chase, or national security concerns.
At a Jan. 23 workshop in Annapolis sponsored by the Maryland Catholic Conference, James Brooks, community relations officer for the Baltimore and Washington ICE field offices, noted that enforcement activities were focused on arresting criminals.
Such arrests can prevent the revictimization of individuals in immigrant communities “because most of the time when they target someone, they’re targeting someone they know, and they are within that immigrant community,” he said.
In answer to a question, Brooks acknowledged that if others who are subject to removal from the country are at the same location – home or elsewhere – when ICE officers make arrests, they may also be subject to arrest.
The Jan. 23 MCC workshop also featured a lawyer from the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC) detailing a “Know Your Rights” packet available in 10 languages. The 18-page packet includes information on what to say or do if an agent comes to your home or other location, information about how to read a search warrant or arrest warrant, and steps for emergency planning.
Redemptorist Father Ako Walker, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus-Sagrado Corazón de Jesús in Highlandtown, has also held a “Know Your Rights” Zoom seminar at Sacred Heart of Jesus-Sagrado Corazón de Jesús. The congregation consists of 2,500 families, 95 percent of which are Spanish-speaking immigrants.
Father Walker, who celebrated a recent Mass dedicated to immigrants and exiles at the parish that drew about 300, noted there is little he can do about ICE policies. But he added, “It is my belief they will not interrupt the Mass. I am firm in that.”
In addition, Father Walker said he was told ICE will only come into the church during a liturgy if someone it is trying to apprehend runs into the church.
Bishop Lewandowski believes rhetoric coming from the Trump administration and in the media is harsher than the reality.
“It does not necessarily match what we’re experiencing in the day-to-day life of our immigrant brothers and sisters, but that rhetoric is – some politicians and church leaders have said – terrorizing people,” Bishop Lewandowski said. “And we saw this in the previous Trump administration, but we also saw it in the Obama administration.”
The Catholic Review compiled anecdotes from throughout the archdiocese under a promise of anonymity to protect those involved.
A father from El Salvador with two children under age 15 has had a work permit for more than two years after applying for asylum.
“The fear of returning to my country is because I could not give my children a good education or give them a career where they can exercise it because in our country it is very difficult,” he said. Some neighbors or co-workers fear being arrested without having any criminal offense.
He recalled how he himself was once mistakenly accused of serious crimes while simply applying for a driver’s license.
“Thank God I maintained my innocence and solved the situation,” he said, noting that he was able to talk to a judge who sent documents to prove he was not the suspect in an armed robbery and domestic violence case.
A representative of a central Maryland parish said her “beautiful” parish family includes many Hispanic families coming every weekend for Masses, prayer groups and religious education.
“Of course, we have not asked any questions about actual immigration status since that has no bearing on bringing the light of Christ to everyone,” the parish representative said. “We have an active social justice committee of 12 … who are trying to battle prejudice in our own community as well as society at large.”
A mother from Honduras, with a pre-teen daughter born in the United States and an adult son, has had an order of deportation since the mid-2010s. Her husband was deported about six years ago, and two years later was murdered in Honduras. She decided not to leave the country because there was a lot of crime in Honduras, and she did not want her son to return to that environment.
“I am afraid that they will deport me and my oldest son, and that my daughter will be left alone,” she said. “My children have already lost their father due to crime in Honduras and I don’t want them to suffer another separation.”
Father Walker said the change in enforcement policies is not yet having any effect on Mass attendance among immigrants. But the rest of the time, some parishioners “prefer to remain indoors,” he said.
On Feb. 11, 27 religious organizations, representing Christians and Jews, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that seeks to prevent ICE agents from making arrests at houses of worship. It frames the matter as an issue of religious freedom.
A similar lawsuit was filed Jan. 27 in U.S. District Court Maryland by five Quaker congregations, later joined by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and a Sikh temple.
The lawsuit observes that during the first week of the current Trump administration, ICE arrested more than 4,500 people, including nearly 1,000 in a Sunday “immigration enforcement blitz” with at least one set of arrests occurring during a worship service at a church in Georgia.
“An immigration enforcement action during worship services, ministry work or other congregational activities would be devastating to their religious practice,” the lawsuit states. “It would shatter the consecrated space of sanctuary, thwart communal worship and undermine the social service outreach that is central to religious expression and spiritual practice.”
Catholic Charities
William J. “Bill” McCarthy Jr., executive director of Catholic Charities of Baltimore, told the Catholic Review that the new crackdown on immigration has not yet had an effect on donations that support the organization’s $180 million annual budget. “Our donors and supporters have been consistent and steady.”
But misinformation, some of it originating with politicians, is a problem.
At a Jan. 28 White House press conference, a reporter from the Daily Caller asked White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt if Trump “intended to permanently cut off funding to NGOs that are bringing illegal foreign nationals to the country, such as Catholic Charities?”
She replied, “I am actually quite certain that the president signed an executive order that did just that,” she said.
But Catholic Charities never does that, McCarthy said. “Immigrants in shelters are brought there by ICE agents,” he said. “We deal with immigrants who are in the country, but don’t bring them into the country.”
Catholic Charities of Baltimore serves an estimated 200,000 people annually, with immigrants making up about 5,000, 2.5 percent of its clients.
McCarthy called the policy change “misguided and probably ill-informed.”
“We’ve seen even people with Temporary Protected Status or no criminal background of any kind detained, or at least questioned.”
So far, Catholic Charities’ Esperanza Center has not seen a decline in attendance or engagement, according to Matthew Dolomare, director. The center’s $5 million budget for the current fiscal year has received a little more than $1 million in federal grants, and slightly less than that in state grants.
The situation may become more clear as Congress approves a new budget in the coming months, Dolomare told the Catholic Review. But the existence of the Esperanza Center is not in doubt.
The Esperanza Center does not handle refugee resettlement, but Dolomare’s hope is that the courts will preserve that in some form. As for the center, he said he expects it to be a place where refugees can and should turn to for support.
Dolomare and McCarthy still find reasons for hope, despite the uncertain future of both federal and state grant funding.
“There’s been an increase in volunteers asking us how they can help. Also, there’s a lot of court activity,” as charities file suit against Trump administration plans, Dolomare said.
State and local governments are still engaged with the Esperanza Center. “We are all still talking to each other all the time. That’s not going to stop,” Dolomare said.
Bishop Lewandowski said now is the time to work hard, not on enforcement only but on immigration reform that “respects the dignity of the human person, the unity of the family and respects the hard work and contributions that immigrants have made to this country.”
He said the system needs to allow people to come into the country legally “because people have a right to migrate, to move, to escape war and violence, to escape terror, to seek a better life, education and healthcare and work – basic human rights,”
He said he likes what Pope Francis has said, emphasizing that the church is not asking the U.S. to open its borders without any restraints.
“We’re asking the U.S., the people of the U.S., to open their hearts,” Bishop Lewandowski said. “And I really think that’s at the heart of this: love for our neighbor, love for Christ present in our immigrant brothers and sisters.”
Christopher Gunty contributed to this story.
Always a home
Archbishop William E. Lori, along with Maryland’s Catholic bishops released a statement Jan. 27, “In Solidarity and Accompaniment” (“En Solidaridad y Acompañamiento”). It reads in part:
“Many of you carry heavy burdens – of separation, fear, and the unknown. Yet, you also bring with you the strength of your faith, the richness of your cultures and the hope of building a better future for your families.
“We want you to know that you are not alone. We stand with you, journeying alongside you in solidarity and accompaniment. We are here to offer compassionate care, to listen to your needs, and to advocate for justice on your behalf.
“The church has always been a home for those in search of refuge and peace, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to welcome the stranger and embrace the vulnerable.”
Pope Francis, in an open letter sent to U.S. bishops Feb. 10, wrote:
“The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality. At the same time, one must recognize the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival.
“That said, the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness.”
Read More Immigration & Migration
Copyright © 2025 Catholic Review Media
