• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney of Paterson, N.J., is seen at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph in Brooklyn, N.Y., April 26, 2020. The Paterson Diocese and five of its diocesan priests filed a lawsuit against federal agencies Aug. 8, 2024, in the U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., arguing a rule change in religious worker visas means the foreign-born priests are in the position of having to "count the days until they have no lawful choice but to abandon their congregations" in the U.S. (OSV News photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)

N.J. diocese, priests sue federal government over religious worker visa rule change

August 19, 2024
By Gina Christian
OSV News
Filed Under: Feature, Immigration and Migration, News, Vocations, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

A New Jersey diocese and several priests are suing the federal government over a rule change in religious worker visas, in a case that highlights the perfect storm created by the nation’s shifting immigration policies and the Catholic Church in the United States’ increased reliance on foreign-born clergy amid a downward trend of domestic vocations to the priesthood.

The Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey, and five of its diocesan priests filed the lawsuit Aug. 8 in the U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J. Four of the priests — Father Regin Nico Dela Cruz Quintos, Father Joemin Kharlo Chong Parinas, Father Armando Diaz Vizcara Jr. and Father Joseph Anthony Aguila Mactal — are citizens of the Philippines. The fifth priest, Father Manuel Alejandro Cuellar Ceballos, is a Colombian national.

Named in the suit as defendants are the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, along with their respective heads, Secretary Antony Blinken, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Director Ur Mendoza Jaddou.

The suit alleges that the agencies and their leaders have placed the priests in the position of having to “count the days until they have no lawful choice but to abandon their congregations” in the U.S.

At issue is what the diocese’s legal counsel described in an Aug. 16 statement as an unlawful and unconstitutional alteration of how visa availability is calculated for certain noncitizens, which creates “profound immigration delays for noncitizen religious workers.”

Under U.S. immigration law, two types of visas are available for religious workers. The employment-based EB-4, or special immigrant religious worker, visa permits qualified religious workers to immigrate to the U.S on a permanent basis and to potentially become citizens. The R-1 visa, by contrast, allows religious workers to enter the country on a temporary basis and to perform services for up to five years.

However, in March 2023, the State Department announced a sudden change in the allocation of EB-4 visas, thereby significantly lengthening for most applicants the time required to qualify.

In an explanatory note about the revision on its website, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops observed, “One indirect impact of this change is that many more religious workers on a nonimmigrant religious worker (R-1) visa, who might otherwise have sought adjustment of status under the EB-4 category, will be forced to leave the United States upon reaching the maximum five-year period of stay allowed for an R-1 visa.”

In March, President Joe Biden extended the EB-4 non-minister special immigrant religious worker program through Sept. 30, although those entering the U.S. solely as ministers, along with their spouses and children, are not affected by the sunset date.

In its legal filing, the diocese noted that the R-1 visas for four of the priests will expire in May 2025, while that of a fifth will lapse in April 2026.

The diocese alleges the rule change by the federal government was “arbitrary, capricious, misguided, unlawful, conducted without notice or comment and … an incorrect interpretation of the Immigration and Nationality Act.”

The complaint also holds that the federal government’s “implementation of immigration law discriminates against religious employers and favors nonreligious employers,” explained the diocese in its Aug. 16 statement.

Violations of the Administrative Procedures Act, the Congressional Review Act, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the free exercise clause of the First Amendment, and the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fifth Amendment are all alleged in the lawsuit.

“Our Catholic communities rely on our international clergy to shepherd our flocks and nourish their spiritual journey,” said Paterson Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney in the diocese’s statement. “The State Department’s change to the regulations threatens our mission to serve our communities.”

Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, who chairs the USCCB’s Committee on Migration, said during the U.S. bishops’ spring 2024 general assembly in Louisville, Ky., that the religious worker visa issue “is only expected to worsen with time, if not addressed” — especially since close to 90 percent of the nation’s Catholic dioceses rely on foreign-born clergy and religious.

“This is simply not sustainable for our ministries — and it is especially devastating for parishes that will be left without a pastor when he is forced to depart the country at the end of his R-1 visa,” Bishop Seitz told the assembly.

Read More Immigration & Migration

Trump administration to appeal after judge blocks ICE detentions based on race

Remember common decency in immigration enforcement

ICE

ICE deports Iowa parishioner to Guatemala homeland as supporters pray for his release

Miami clergy raise concerns as Trump tours Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

Faith-based refugee centers in Rome provide a lifeline to newcomers

USCCB, Catholic Charities among 200 NGOs in House probe on migrant aid

Copyright © 2024 OSV News

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Gina Christian

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Archbishop Lori announces clergy appointments, including pastor and associate pastors

  • superman Movie Review: Superman

  • DUAL ENROLLMENT Double the learning: Dual enrollment provides college credit to high school students

  • Pope prays for conversion of those resisting climate action at new Mass

  • Castel Gandolfo After 12 years, locals welcome pope back to his summer home

| Latest Local News |

Deacon Gary Elliott Dumer Jr., active in men’s ministry, dies

Radio Interview: The music and ministry of Seph Schlueter

Hunt Valley parishioner recalls her former student – a future pope

Father Herman Benedict Czaster, former Curley teacher, dies at 86

Loyola University Maryland graduate ordained Jesuit priest

| Latest World News |

Pope Leo visits Italian Carabinieri station, Poor Clares during summer break

1 officer dead, 3 seminarians kidnapped after attack on Nigerian seminary

Trump administration to appeal after judge blocks ICE detentions based on race

80 years after ‘Trinity,’ Catholic-hosted gathering calls to abolish nuclear weapons

Gaza’s Christian community persevering amid hardship and hope

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Pope Leo visits Italian Carabinieri station, Poor Clares during summer break
  • 1 officer dead, 3 seminarians kidnapped after attack on Nigerian seminary
  • Trump administration to appeal after judge blocks ICE detentions based on race
  • Remember common decency in immigration enforcement
  • Sponsors – for life
  • Listen for God this summer
  • 80 years after ‘Trinity,’ Catholic-hosted gathering calls to abolish nuclear weapons
  • Gaza’s Christian community persevering amid hardship and hope
  • Nearly one in three conceptions in England and Wales end in abortion, government figures reveal

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en