The Ice is directed to the men of the Inner Empire of the Church

From Deborah BrennanCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

Ice arrests near two churches in San Bernardino County last month show how the accumulated implementation of immigration is disturbing places that were once considered protected.

On June 20, federal agents raised a long -time parishionaire of the Church of the Virgin Mary of Lurkler in church property, according to The National Catholic reporter. In a separate incident, this day agents pursued several men in church parking from St. Adelaide parish in Highland.

Homefly Security Auxiliary Secretary, Trisha McLaughlin, challenged what she said were news reports that the agents had entered the church hall.

“The accusation that ICE went to church to arrest are incorrect,” she said in an email to Calmatters. “The ice stopped the movement of an illegal alien on June 20 in the general proximity of the Church of the Virgin Mary of Lourdes, Monkler, California. The illegal extraterrestrial chose to enter the church parking lot. The officers then safely made the arrest. “

For almost a decade and a half, US immigration officials have abandoned the churches, following a directive By former President Barack Obama This limits the application of immigration to sensitive places, including schools, hospitals and places of worship. Former President Joe Biden maintains these guidelines To determine immigration actions in areas that provide basic services.

On the day of his opening on January 20, President Donald Trump cancel this protectionStating that the restrictions on the era of Biden “thwart law enforcement in or near the so -called” sensitive “areas.

Catholic leaders denied the aggressive tactics of the application of ICE and protested that many detained immigrants were denied the right to plead their deeds.

“The authorities now take on indiscriminately siblings, without respecting their right to a proper process and their dignity as the children of God,” writes Bishop Alberto Rohasof the Roman Catholic Diocese in San Bernardino, in a letter to the parishioners on June 23.

John Andrews, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese in San Bernardino, said the man detained in the Virgin Mary of Lourdes is a long -time parishione, whose family is involved in ministry.

“There was no one present in the Virgin Mary of Lourdes when he was removed,” Andrews told Calmatters in an email. “He was doing some landscaping work there. He’s in custody, so there is no one who really talks to what happened in this concern.”

The men arrested at the Church of St. Adelaide seem to have had no connection with the parish, Andrews said: “Neither the parish nor the diocese have information about them, their location or not whether they were arrested or not.”

Rohas said in his letter that church leaders respect the efforts of law enforcement to protect communities from violent criminals, but the attack of homes, jobs and churches creates fear and confusion: “This is not the gospel of Jesus Christ – which leads us to everything we do.”

He asked the elected leaders to “review and terminate these tactics immediately, in favor of an approach that respects the rights of man and human dignity and is being built to a more durable, overall reform of our immigration system.”

The Catholic Church has increasingly read the difficult situation of immigrants and refugees in recent years. Thehe The late Pope Francis He travels to Sicily to meet with immigrants from Libya on his first pastoral visit outside Rome and later save 12 Syrians from a refugee camp in Greece. While Trump took office in January, Pope Francis Realized his plans for mass deportation as a “shame”.

On June 20, the day of the arrests of the Church of the Internal Empire, also the World Refugee Day, Michael Fam, the newly appointed bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese in San Diego, joined a group of clergymen in Immigration in the Federal Building in San Diego.

Fam came to the United States as a Vietnam refugee in 1981. He told reporters that he was praying for “wisdom and insight to help our poor brothers … through the crises in their lives.”

The raids are also beginning to attract criticism from some Republican MPs in California. Six signed a letter of June 27, calling for more moderate immigration actions, arguing that the attacks were injuring communities and businesses.

Legislators – including the state Late. Rosilicie ochoa boghRepublican Redlands – approved the letter from Senator suzette Martinez ValladaresRepublican from Santa Clarita, asking Trump to “focus deportations on criminals” and modernize immigration policies.

While they support the application of immigration against violent criminals, they said that immigrants without criminal files are sinking into attacks, “creating a wide fear.”

The raids on the workplace of ice on farms, construction sites, restaurants and hotels, “harm the communities we represent and the businesses that use our ingredients”, “” The letter indicatesS

Legislators want a complete immigration reform, expansion of work visas and path to the legal status of non -criminal immigrants.

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.