The bishops invoked St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, commonly known as Mother Cabrini, in their statement condemning the deportations of migrants who are seeking refugee status in the United States.<\/p>\n
The Catholic bishops of New York issued a joint statement that condemns the deportations of migrants who are seeking refugee status in the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not support the sweeping revocation of the temporary protected status that was granted to many migrants who arrived in this country to escape the horrors occurring in their own, and who have justifiably relied upon the legal protections our government offered to them,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch persons should not be subject to the arbitrary cancellation of their legal status and threatened with a sudden return to the troubled and dangerous nations from which they fled,\u201d the bishops added.<\/p>\n
The Nov. 13 statement, titled \u201cFor You Too Were Once Aliens<\/a>,\u201d was published by the New York State Catholic Conference (NYSCC). Every bishop who leads a diocese in New York, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan, signed onto the statement.<\/p>\n It comes one day after the USCCB issued a unified statement<\/a> to oppose \u201cthe indiscriminate mass deportation of people.\u201d More than 95% of the voting bishops agreed with the special message, with 216 voting to approve it, five voting against it, and three abstaining.<\/p>\n The New York bishops wrote that \u201cmany \u2026 refugee migrants have come to New York,\u201d some of whom have been granted refugee status, asylum status, or temporary protected status, while others are given no legal status.<\/p>\n \u201cSome have arrived from war-torn countries like Ukraine and Afghanistan; others from Central or South America have fled poverty, authoritarian governments, and drug cartels that made life in their country of origin dangerous for themselves and their families,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of these migrants \u2014 the majority, our neighbors \u2014 are good people who arrived on our shores seeking a better life,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n Former President Joe Biden expanded the temporary protected status program by adding six countries, including Venezuela, Ukraine, and Afghanistan. President Donald Trump has worked to remove this designation from nine countries, including Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n The bishops invoked St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, commonly known as Mother Cabrini, in their statement. She immigrated from Italy to the United States and \u201cestablished, with God\u2019s grace, numerous charitable institutions and schools to serve those finding their way in a new land,\u201d the bishops noted. <\/p>\n The statement cited Pope Leo XIV\u2019s apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te<\/a>, which says the Church \u201cknows that in every rejected migrant, it is Christ himself who knocks at the door of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n