WASHINGTON (AP) — Prominent U.S. Catholic bishops and nuns involved in immigration issues have strongly criticized the Trump administration’s stringent policies, accusing them of breaking up families, spreading fear, and disrupting church activities across the nation.

While speaking against the federal government’s actions, the Catholic leaders shared during a panel at Georgetown University on Thursday how they are offering support to anxious immigrants. Due to President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation plans and heightened immigration enforcement, many families are scared to send their children to school, or even attend work or church, fearing detention and deportation.

“The enforcement of these immigration policies today is not just impacting individual immigrants, but is also destabilizing families, businesses, the lives of children, and entire communities and neighborhoods,” stated Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, from Washington, D.C. “The look in people’s eyes shows pain and profound confusion. … What is our path forward if we’re not welcome?”

These fears worsened with a policy change at the start of Trump’s second term, allowing immigration officers greater freedom to arrest individuals at schools and places of worship, which had previously been seen as safe zones. This practice is being legally challenged by educators and religious groups.

“On a personal level, it resonates with me because I was once a stranger and was welcomed,” expressed Menjivar-Ayala, who crossed into the U.S. illegally in 1990 fleeing the civil war in El Salvador. Now, as a U.S. citizen, he is the first Salvadoran bishop in the country.

Supporting families in distress by maintaining hope is an essential part of the aid provided, said Sister Norma Pimentel, a prominent migrant-rights advocate along the U.S.-Mexico border and participant in the panel. She leads Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, a care center for needy migrants in McAllen, Texas.

She recalled visiting immigrant families at a detention center in a “terrible condition,” and being moved to tears.

“I saw Border Patrol agents looking at us, and they, too, were moved and were crying,” she said. “When I walked out of there, the officer turned to me and said, ‘Thank you, sister, for helping us realize they’re human beings.’”

Department of Homeland Security officials have maintained there will be no safe spaces for those who are in the country illegally, have committed crimes, or tried to undermine immigration enforcement. They have consistently said their efforts are intended to safeguard public safety and national security.

Catholic leaders at odds with Trump over immigration

Catholic leaders follow the church’s core doctrine against abortion and same-sex marriage, priorities they share with many political conservatives. But they’ve been at odds with the Trump administration on immigration.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced the end of a half-century of partnerships with the federal government to serve refugees and migrant children, saying the “heartbreaking” decision followed the Trump administration’s abrupt halt to funding.

In February, the late Pope Francis also issued a major rebuke to the administration’s plans for mass deportations of migrants, warning that the forceful removal of people purely because of their illegal status deprives them of their inherent dignity.

At the panel, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski highlighted the contributions of immigrants to the country’s economy.

“If you ask people in agriculture, you ask in the service industry, you ask people in health care, you ask the people in the construction field, and they’ll tell you that some of their best workers are immigrants,” said Wenski, who has served on the USCCB’s migration committee. “Enforcement is always going to be part of any immigration policy, but we have to rationalize it and humanize it.”

Wenski joined the “Knights on Bikes” ministry, an initiative led by the Knights of Columbus that draws attention to the spiritual needs of people held at immigration detention centers, including the one in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” He recalled praying a rosary with the bikers in the scorching heat outside its walls. Days later, he got permission to celebrate Mass inside the facility.

“The fact that we invite these detainees to pray, even in this very dehumanizing situation, is a way of emphasizing and invoking their dignity,” he said. “More importantly that God has not forgotten them.”

Los Angeles archdiocese suffers after immigration raids

In Los Angeles County, the Trump administration’s ramped up arrests of people suspected of living in the country illegally has upended life for tens of thousands of people. About a third of the county’s 10 million residents are foreign-born, and many are now trying to live without being noticed.

Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez said on the panel that the fear-inducing effect of immigration raids lowered attendance at Mass, and affected valuable church programs that mostly serve immigrants. The archdiocese is helping those being detained and facing deportation with legal and financial assistance.

“People are really afraid of going out of their homes,” said Gomez, the first Latino to serve as USCCB president. “A lot of the priests are telling me here in the archdiocese that at least 30% of the people attending Mass are not coming anymore.”

Panelists warn of fallout from immigration crackdown

The panel, which included academics and legal experts, lamented the suffering of children separated from their parents. Legal expert Ashley Feasley, who is with Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law, noted the millions of children who are U.S. citizens and have parents and other family members in the country illegally.

“When we think about the level of enforcement that is starting, occurring, and will intensify … we have to think about these families. What will they do? How will they handle it if a parent gets detained?” Feasley said.

Trump has portrayed his federal law enforcement surge in Washington as focused on tackling crime. But data from the federal operation, analyzed by The Associated Press, shows that more than 40% of the arrests made over the monthlong operation were in fact related to immigration.

“The president says that he’s enforcing these policies to make our cities safer, but if immigrants, if people are afraid of interacting with law enforcement, with police, reporting crimes, obviously they’re going to become targets of crimes,” said Menjivar-Ayala.

“This is not going to help to make our streets, our communities safer.”

Ministering to immigrants at the border

Mark Seitz, the bishop of El Paso, Texas, said it is crucial to continue informing immigrant communities about their rights

“We don’t stop at praying,” Seitz, chair of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration, told the panel.

“Prayer moves us to action, and that’s what we ought to be doing — to abide by our support, our love, our accompaniment, by being present to people who’ve been terrorized by the actions of the government.”

At end of the panel, Gomez said it’s important to remember that the United States is a country of immigrants.

“I think we’ll have immigrant reform very soon. That’s my prayer and my dream — that we can get something done, finally, as a solution of these challenges,” he said.

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