Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns Opposes Expansion of Title 42
With the new policies announced by President Biden, the right to seek asylum at ports of entry continues to shrink to the point of illusion.
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
With the new policies announced by President Biden, the right to seek asylum at ports of entry continues to shrink to the point of illusion.
Ask Congress to end Title 42 and protect Dreamers. Dreamers cannot wait for a permanent status and asylum-seekers cannot wait for entry.
American Dream and Promise Act, Farm Workforce Modernization Act, Afghan Adjustment Act – It is conceivable (if unlikely) that these legislative bills will be able to return in the next congresses in undiluted form, but there is no justification for needlessly postponing the accomplishments for another several years.
Debbie Northern, a Maryknoll lay missioner in El Paso, Texas, reflects on the Christian call to seek justice for all who are oppressed.
Now is the moment to hold CBP and other law enforcement in the United States accountable, and point to the reforms that will open a new chapter, one where human rights and life are paramount and protected at all times for all people.
Time is running out for Congress to take action for Dreamers.
The Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns and missioners working on the southern border call for this shameful practice [of sending migrants to northern cities without a plan] to end and for leaders at all levels of government to work together for an ethical approach to the management of migration that centers the dignity of the person, in this case, the vulnerable migrant.
The faith community has repeatedly urged Congress to provide lasting protection for our new Afghan neighbors. The only viable solution is through the passage of an Afghan Adjustment Act, as the U.S. has done for other vulnerable people such as Cubans following the rise of Fidel Castro, Southeast Asians following the fall of Saigon, and Iraqis following multiple U.S. military engagements.
We call on President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas to halt all removals to Haiti immediately. The humanitarian crisis in Haiti continues to worsen. The United Nations special rapporteur on human rights stated in May that, “Armed violence has reached unimaginable and intolerable levels in Haiti.”
In light of the extraordinary global need, and the United States’ demonstrated capacity to expand welcome, it is imperative that your administration set a robust refugee admissions goal of 200,000 refugees for FY23.
More than 75,000 Afghans in the United States risk becoming undocumented if Congress does not take action.
Maryknoll Sisters issue urgent call for short-term volunteers to care for migrants in the juggle of Panama.
Civil society groups outlined migration policy priorities in a letter to Pres. Biden before the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles in June 2022.
The Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns joined a coalition of over 100 other civil society organizations in sending the following letter to the Biden administration in advance of the Summit of the Americas meeting in Los Angeles in June 2022, explaining the coalition’s priorities for advancing just and humane migration policy.
The Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns laments the preliminary injunction issued by Judge Robert Summerhays of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana that will temporarily halt the Biden administration’s effort to end Title 42 expulsions at the border.
Kathleen Kollman Birch, communications manager at the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, recalls the experience of Mass at a shelter for migrants in representing the unifying power of the Body and Blood of Christ.
Join a webinar on Thursday, May 19, at 4pm ET, that will examine Filipino history and culture to help address violence against Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States.
Tell Congress: Restore asylum now Last month, the CDC and the Biden administration announced that they would end rapid expulsions of asylum seekers under the Title 42 health policy on…