Memorial crosses for those who have died migrating, attached to the border fence in Nogales, a city that is in both Mexico and the U.S. state of Arizona.
Maryknoll Joint Leadership Statement on U.S. Immigration Policy
Maryknoll Family Calls for Compassion, Rejects “Systematic Erosion” of Migrant Protections
Download the statement as a PDF
As the four branches of the Maryknoll family—Sisters, Fathers and Brothers, Lay Missioners, and Affiliates—we stand united in our commitment to the Gospel, which compels us to welcome the stranger as we would welcome Christ himself. Our century of global mission has taught us that while borders may define nations, they do not limit human dignity.
We witness with heavy hearts a domestic landscape increasingly defined by fear and the systematic erosion of humanitarian protections. This shift carries a profound human cost that contradicts our fundamental belief that every person is made in the image of God. Because of this divine reflection, every human life is sacred and must be protected. We mourn the loss of every life, both the immigrants seeking a better future and the U.S. citizens involved, and hold that human dignity is our shared and primary priority.
We unequivocally reject the current trend toward indiscriminate detention and mass deportations. Our missioners see firsthand the trauma inflicted when parents and children are torn apart. These actions do more than enforce a law; they fracture the fundamental unit of society—the family. We call for an immediate end to enforcement tactics that prioritize administrative speed over the moral and legal right to due process.
Our perspective is informed by decades of lived experience alongside those on the margins in the Global South. People do not flee their homes and kin on a whim; they flee out of a desperate necessity for survival. Migration is a symptom of global inequity. When the yoke of poverty, persecution, and violence is loosened, families can exercise their right not to migrate and instead flourish in their home communities.
We stand at a crossroads. We can choose a path of exclusion and fear, or we can choose the path of the Good Samaritan. The Maryknoll family remains committed to love, walking alongside our migrant brothers and sisters until every person is treated with the dignity befitting a child of God.
Maryknoll Sisters
Maryknoll Lay Missioners
Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers
Maryknoll Affiliates
March 2026
Photo credit MOGC.