Maryknoll missioners have worked with migrants and people on the move for decades. They have served Burmese refugees in Thailand, Filipino and Thai workers all over Asia, Burundian and Rwandan refugees in East Africa, and have accompanied Guatemalans, who, after years in Mexico, returned home to start anew in a more peaceful country. Our faith compels us to stand in solidarity with migrants.
In the United States, we are profoundly affected by the contribution of migrants in our society, and we have a responsibility to treat them, like all the rest of God’s creation, with dignity and respect. Maryknoll missioners work in ministries serving migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border. In our work on U.S. migration policy, we focus on access to asylum and humanitarian protection, refugee aid and resettlement, and access to citizenship.
Maryknoll Joint Leadership Statements on Migration: Toward Global Solidarity (2006) and Statement on the Migrant Caravan (2018)
Policy Brief: Justice for Immigrants and Refugees in U.S. Policy
Tell your Congressional leaders to support the bipartisan Afghan Adjustment Act which would offer a means of processing Afghan war refugees and offering more than their current insufficient-and-expiring protection status.
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns joined 24 other civil society organizations in asking the Foreign Affairs/Relations Congressional committees to release food assistance funds to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinians and Israelis alike will suffer if the UN Relief and Works Agency lacks the funds. Food brought by UNRWA accounts for 60% of food staples imports in Gaza.
One migrant’s journey through South and Central America to seek asylum in the United States.
Maryknoll’s Office for Global Concerns joined Catholic organizations in opposing the Border Security and Enforcement Act of 2023, which would, among other things, restart the Remain in Mexico program, require family detention, and subject unaccompanied children to expedited removal.
Today is an opportunity to re-imagine a world where refugees, asylum seekers, and all migrants are welcomed with compassion and treated with justice.
Debbie Northern reflects on the dignity owed but denied migrants at the U.S./Mexico border
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns joined 32 other religious and humanitarian groups in calling on the White House for a Root Causes Initiative that uses diplomacy to “combat corruption, promote respect for human rights, worker rights, and the rule of law, and encourage inclusive governance.”
Maryknoll Missioners respond to the end of Title 42 and the asylum restrictions that take its place.
The extreme Secure the Border Act (H.R. 2) is a sweeping immigration bill that would fundamentally weaken our nation’s decades-long commitment to humanitarian protection
Maryknoll’s Office for Global Concerns joined Catholic organizations in opposing the Secure the Border Act of 2023, which would, among other things, undermine essential partnerships with Catholic care and respite centers, deport unaccompanied children, and eliminate parole authority.
Join us in calling on our representatives in Congress to pass meaningful legislation for the welcome and protection of refugees. Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns participated in the Refugee Council…
With the end of Title 42 on May 11, the political fight over the right to seek asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border is expected to heat up, with poor and vulnerable people caught in the fire.
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns was among the 120 national and local faith-based organizations to cal on President Biden to redesignate TPS for Nicaragua.
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns joined fourteen other Catholic organizations in calling on President Biden to reverse restrictive border policies.
Watch the recording on YouTube
The fact that these migrants – many of them reportedly from Venezuela – were forced to wait in Mexico while on their migration journey to the U.S. border is the United States’ shame.
Statement for the Record U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary Hearing on “Living Up to America’s Promise: The Need to Bolster the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program” March 22, 2023
The Biden Administration has proposed a new immigration rule that will drastically reduce people’s ability to seek asylum.
