Overview
- Bishops approved the special message 216–5–3, opposing indiscriminate mass deportation and calling for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence.
- The move uses a rarely invoked mechanism last used in 2013 and requires a supermajority of the conference.
- The USCCB also launched You Are Not Alone to provide emergency aid, pastoral care, public solidarity, and teaching on Catholic views of migration.
- The statement cites a climate of fear, detention conditions, and curtailed pastoral access, following incidents like priests blocked from Chicago’s Broadview facility.
- The message does not name President Trump, and a White House spokesperson said he is carrying out his promise to deport criminal unauthorized immigrants.