Immigration Enforcement and Catholic Social Teaching

This episode takes a look at the immigration enforcement story that has filled a lot of headlines in the United States in 2025.  Here are references and additional resources.

1. U.S. Bishops Special Message on Immigration  Full text of the Bishops’ Special Message
2. “Protecting The American People Against Invasion”  White House document that lists Executive Orders and other actions launching the immigration enforcement actions of the Trump Administration
3. A New Era of Immigration Enforcement  Describes drop in migrant encounters at the border, increase in migrant detention activities in the interior.
4. DHS Removes More than Half a Million Illegal Aliens From US  Release Date: October 27, 2025  Press release from US Department of Homeland Security
5. “No Kings” Protests October 18, 2025   News coverage of the event
6. 5% of People Detained By ICE Have Violent Convictions, 73% No Convictions  Analysis of recent ICE data
7. Pope Francis to U.S. bishops: Dignity of migrants comes first  “Rightly formed conscience” reference
8. Big Budget Act Creates Deportation Industrial Complex    Budget analysis
9. You Are Not Alone  Ways for Catholics to support immigrants
10. Immigration Reform and The Church  Thoughtful and thorough review of the involvement of the Catholic Church in immigration reform efforts over the past several decades

Transcript

Welcome to “Headline News and Catholic Social Teaching,” where we take a brief look at stories in the news through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching.  I’m your host, Tom Mulhern, and my hope is that this podcast will help us grow in our love of God and love of our neighbors.  

Today’s episode takes a look at the immigration enforcement story that has filled a lot of headlines in the United States in 2025.  And, as we’ll see, Catholic Social Teaching itself has been part of the news story.

When the Trump Administration returned to office on January 20, 2025, they immediately revoked immigration-related Executive Orders from the Biden era and issued a flurry of new Executive Orders aimed at what they called “Protecting the American People from Invasion.”  There’s a link to the White House summary of these actions by the same name in the episode notes.

The administration put new border controls in place, further reduced options for asylum seekers, and used the threat of mass deportations to deter migrants from attempting to cross the US-Mexico border.  As a result, what the government calls “migrant encounters” at the border dropped to 444,000 in fiscal year 2025, down from 2.1 million encounters the year before.

But the immigration news story that got the most attention in 2025 isn’t what happened on the border, it is what has been happening throughout the interior of the United States.  The administration launched an unprecedented immigration enforcement campaign aimed at detaining and deporting immigrants.  

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and other federal entities inside and outside the Department of Homeland Security, received a massive infusion of funding and were given the goal of deporting 1 million immigrants per year.

And they have been busy.  A press release from the Department of Homeland Security released on October 27, 2025, stated that, so far this year,  quote “More than 2 million illegal aliens have left the U.S. including 1.6 million who have voluntarily self-deported and more than 527,000 deportations.” end quote

Now I think I’d quibble with the term “self-deported.”  Deportation is something that happens to you, not something you do to yourself.   But however you describe it, if those numbers are anywhere close to being accurate, that’s a lot of immigrants leaving the country.

ICE pursuit of immigrants within our communities has been both highly visible and highly controversial.  ICE has targeted people at workplaces, farms, university campuses, private homes, even during random traffic stops. To cast an even wider net, the administration revoked a policy that previously limited raids in schools, places of worship, hospitals, and other sensitive areas.

I live in a quiet residential neighborhood of Eugene, Oregon.  A few weeks ago a woman in our neighborhood, on a street where my wife and I walk our dogs every day, watched as three white unmarked vehicles forced a lawn care pickup truck to pull over and then took the two men in the pickup truck into custody.  She said the men taken into custody looked Hispanic.

Such occurrences have become commonplace in many parts of the country.  Not surprisingly, there have been widespread protests against the administration’s immigrant detention and deportation campaign, with protests focused on detention facilities and locations that house ICE agents.  Public concern with immigration enforcement was one of the key features of the “No Kings” protests on October 18, 2025, which, according to organizers, involved nearly 7 million people at 2,700 protest locations, which if true would make it one of the largest single-day demonstrations in U.S. history.

The administration for its part has continued to assert that it is detaining and deporting what it calls “criminal illegal aliens” in order to protect the American people.  However, recent data paints a different picture.  Of the people booked into ICE custody from October 1 through mid-November 2025, 73 percent had no prior criminal convictions and only 8 percent had prior convictions for crimes against people or property.  The remaining 19 percent had prior convictions for things like traffic, immigration or vice law violations.

The U.S. Catholic Church became part of this news story on November 12, 2025.  As the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) gathered for their Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore, the bishops issued what they call a “Special Message” addressing their concern for the evolving situation impacting immigrants in the United States. 

This marked the first time in twelve years the conference of bishops invoked this particularly urgent way of speaking as a body of bishops.  In a vote of 216 votes in favor, 5 votes against, and 3 abstentions, the bishops overwhelmingly approved the Special Message.

I’ve provided a link to the bishops’ Special Message in the episode notes.  I think every American Catholic should read this message, which is easy to do because it’s only a little over a page long, and not just read it, but meditate on it. I’d like to walk through the message with you.

The Bishops open the Special Message with a powerful list of concerns, including that the bishops are:

• Disturbed when they see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement.
• Saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants.
• Concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care. 
• Lament that some immigrants in the United States have arbitrarily lost their legal status. 
• Troubled by threats against the sanctity of houses of worship and the special nature of hospitals and schools. 
• Grieved when they meet parents who fear being detained when taking their children to school and when they try to console family members who have already been separated from their loved ones.

The Bishops go on to cite Catholic Teaching that calls for recognition of the fundamental dignity of all persons, including immigrants.  They call for meaningful reform of our nation’s immigration laws and procedures, and they note that human dignity and national security are not in conflict.

The Bishops message recognizes that nations have a responsibility to regulate their borders and establish a just and orderly immigration system for the sake of the common good.  They cite a number of Scripture references that underscore the quote “foundational concern for the human person, as created in the image and likeness of God.”end quote

The Bishops speak directly to immigrants, saying “we stand with you in your suffering.”  They also speak directly to all US Catholics and all people of good will, encouraging the continuation and expansion of efforts to accompany and assist immigrants in meeting their basic human needs.

The Bishops state their opposition to the indiscriminate mass deportation of people, they pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence on all sides, they pray that the Lord may guide the leaders of our nation, they express gratitude for past and present opportunities to dialogue with public officials, and they state clearly that the US Catholic Church will continue to advocate for meaningful immigration reform.  The Special Message ends with a brief prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Again, I encourage everyone to read the full message and really give it some thought and prayer.  The Bishops recognize that the US government has the right and the responsibility to regulate its borders and manage immigration.  However, they are clearly and even courageously stating that the current focus on detention and mass deportation is being conducted in a way that is in violation of the inherent dignity of immigrants as human persons.

Both Pope Leo and Pope Francis before him encouraged the US Bishops to take a clear position in solidarity with immigrants.  In a letter to the US Bishops published Feb 11, just a few weeks before he died, Pope Francis made a comment that we might all reflect on.  

Pope Francis — while supporting a nation’s right to defend itself from people who have committed violent or serious crimes — said a “rightly formed conscience” would disagree with associating the illegal status of some migrants with criminality.  Let me repeat that.  He said that a “rightly formed conscience” would disagree with associating the illegal status of some migrants with criminality.

He goes on to say “The act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution, or serious deterioration of the environment damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness,” end quote.

OK, before I wrap up this episode, I want to take a quick look at budgets, because budgets show priorities.  All previous US administrations have detained and deported immigrants, that’s not anything new.  What is different in 2025 is the way that it is being done and the unprecedented expansion of governmental infrastructure for detention and deportation.

The One Big Beautiful Bill approved in July 2025 allocates more than $170 billion dollars over four years for border and interior enforcement, with a stated goal of deporting 1 million immigrants each year. That’s more than the yearly budget for all local and state law enforcement agencies combined across the entire United States.

$45 billion of the $170 billion will be used to fund and operate ICE detention facilities over the next four years.  That’s an annual amount for immigrant detention that is more than the budget for the entire federal prison system.

Let me just say that I haven’t been able to find any valid security-based justification for such staggering increases in funding for immigrant detention and deportation.  On the contrary, studies consistently show that immigrants – including immigrants without legal status – have lower crime rates than the U.S. born population.

So, the build up in immigrant detention and deportation is just getting started, and this issue is going to continue to challenge US Catholics to respond.  In the episode notes, you’ll find a link to “You Are Not Alone,” which offers very specific ways Catholics can support immigrants through prayer and action.

You’ll also find references and additional resources in the notes.  I particularly recommend the resource titled “Immigration Reform and the Church.”  It provides a thoughtful and thorough review of the involvement of the Catholic Church in immigration reform efforts over the past several decades.  As Catholics, we’ve been involved in this discussion for a long time, and we’ll continue to be involved through whatever challenges the future brings, because our hope rests not in politicians or governments but in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Well, that’s all for this episode of “Headline News and Catholic Social Teaching.”  I hope that, in some small ways, this episode might help us live our lives guided by the Holy Spirit through the teachings of the Church.  

Thank you for listening.