USCCB files brief in Supreme Court immigration case
February 14, 2023
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has filed an amicus curiae [friend of the court] brief in Arizona v. Mayorkas.
On one side of the immigration case are Arizona and other states that wish to keep in place a Trump-era anti-Covid protocol. On the other side is the Biden administration, which has sought to end the protocol’s use. (Alejandro Mayorkas is the Secretary of Homeland Security.)
In 2020, the Trump administration invoked Title 42, a 1944 law that permits the federal government to exercise broad medical powers in times of war and national emergency, including the power to restrict the entry of migrants seeking entry into the United States. Title 42 was invoked in 1.7 million cases in fiscal year 2021 alone.
In April 2022, the Biden administration announced plans to stop invoking Title 42—a decision welcomed by the USCCB. The states argue that the Biden administration did not give proper notice of the change, and the Supreme Court has permitted the 2020 policy to remain in place while the issue is adjudicated.
In the brief, the USCCB and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) argued that they are
motivated by the teachings of the Catholic Church, which include a central belief that every person is imbued with an inviolable dignity, and that all human life, created in the image and likeness of God, is sacred. It is through this lens that the Church stands “against every attempt to evaluate the person according to utilitarian and power-based criteria.” (Pope Benedict XVI). These teachings extend to migrants seeking refuge in a foreign land. Since the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis has consistently reaffirmed the Church’s perennial concern for migrants and condemned the growing “globalization of indifference” facing those who flee violence, persecution, and other life-threatening circumstances (citation) ...
Amici [i.e., the USCCB and CLINIC] urge a comprehensive plan for migration that ensures the humane treatment of all persons and respects their God-given dignity. Many of the most vulnerable migrants have been forced to languish in Mexico, unable to avail themselves of the opportunity to seek protection in accordance with U.S. and international law, as a result of the Title 42 Policy ... For these reasons, amici oppose the continuation of this Policy on moral and legal grounds.
Even as it seeks to cease to exercise the powers permitted under Title 42, the Biden administration in recent months has significantly tightened immigration restrictions on migrants who are fleeing leftist regimes in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua, as well as migrants from Haiti. The USCCB has decried these decisions.
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Posted by: Randal Mandock -
Feb. 14, 2023 2:27 PM ET USA
I fully support a better immigration plan than what has been in effect since the early 1970s. In the late 1960s and early 1970s the U.S. allowed foreign laborers to bring their families here for 6 months every year. I used to deliver groceries to their camps at vegetable processing/canning factories, so I got to know many of them. After these years the system went downhill. Not surprising that Biden is targeting immigration from 3 Communist countries and 1 anarchist country. These people know.
