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El Salvador bishops in D.C. to plead for saving immigration protections

Christopher White | Crux National Correspondent

Salvadoran Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chavez walks away after Mass while faithful hold an image of Blessed Oscar Romero at St. Camillus Church in Silver Spring, Md., April 10. CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn

CROP_Salvador-romero.jpg

This article first appeared on Crux and is reprinted here with permission.

NEW
YORK – Bishops from El Salvador are joining bishops from the United States in
the nation’s capital this week, in an effort to remind government officials of
what will happen if over 200,000 Salvadorans lose their protected status under
U.S. immigration law and are deported to their home country.

In January of this year, the
Trump administration announced that it would revoke the Temporary Protected
Status (TPS) designation for El Salvador, a program that allows for individuals
to reside and work in the U.S. if their home country is under threat from
natural disaster, violence, or other extraordinary circumstances.

The U.S. bishops have previously
condemned the decision as “heartbreaking.” This week’s delegation of Cardinal
Gregorio Rosa Chavez, president of Caritas El Salvador; Archbishop José Luis
Escobar Alas, archbishop of San Salvador; Bishop William Irahera, bishop of
Santiago de Maria; and Bishop Elías Samuel Bolaños Avelar, vice-president of
Caritas El Salvador; accompanied by Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami and
Auxiliary Bishop Mario Eduardo Dorsonville-Rodríguez of Washington; in some
respects fulfills a pledge to stand in solidarity with TPS beneficiaries as they
navigate uncertain legal futures.

The visit is being organized by
the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Migration and Refugee
Services (USCCB/MRS) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS). The bishops will spend
four days in the Washington, D.C. area speaking to congressional
representatives, State Department officials, and other political leaders,
encouraging a long-term solution for TPS beneficiaries, as well as spending
time participating in community dialogues, and providing spiritual care for the
nation’s largest TPS beneficiary population.

Ashley Feasley, director of
policy for MRS, told Crux that there is a three-fold purpose
for the delegation’s visit.

“First, to stand in solidarity
with Salvadorans who are hurting and anxious about the TPS decision- to provide
them accompaniment and pastoral support. Secondly, to advocate with Congress to
remind them about what Temporary Protected Status is- why it’s needed and why
TPS holders, especially those who have lived here for a long time and integrated
into our communities and have U.S. Citizen children, need protection.”

Finally, she said, another aim is
“to engage the State Department about the need for development, reintegration
services for El Salvador and for the region. To ensure that we are looking at
the U.S. government Central American strategy through protection, development
and a human lens – not just an enforcement lens.”

Jill Marie Gerschutz-Bell, a
legislative specialist at CRS, said that the joint efforts of Church
leaders from the two nations sends a message that “the Church is in unity with
you wherever you are.”

TPS was established by the U.S.
Congress in 1990 with bipartisan support and signed into law by President
George W. Bush. El Salvador received TPS designation in 2001, following two
major earthquakes that devastated the country and from which they are still
recovering.

Since Congress has not considered
legislation related to TPS in 30 years, part of the reason for this week’s
visit is to educate lawmakers about what’s at stake.

Wenski – who has long been an
advocate for the program, as his home diocese of Miami has the largest Haitian
population in the U.S., and has also had their TPS designation revoked – said
that there could be a silver lining to the Trump administration’s decision to
end the program, if it means Congress steps up to provide a permanent fix.

“TPS has left these people in a
limbo. They’re neither fish nor fowl. They’re not illegal immigrants but
they’re not legal immigrants either, because they have work permits, they
cannot adjust their status to permanent residency, and because of that, they
cannot travel,” he said.

“If they went back to their
homeland for a funeral, for example, they would not be able to come back to the
United States. This has extended itself for a couple of decades now,” Wenski
told Crux. 

He said that he hopes government
officials will listen to the firsthand accounts of the El Salvadoran bishops
this week that the country “is in no position to receive a massive influx of
deportees because of the fragile social situation in their country.”

In recent years, the rhetoric
over immigrants – and El Salvadoran migrants, in particular – has been very
divisive, and both Wenski and Gerschutz-Bell criticized President Donald Trump
for language, they argued, which has suggested most immigrants contribute to
gang violence in this country.

“Most people are not very well
informed on the intricacies of immigration policies,” said Wenski. “When the
president underscores the issue of gang violence, it can distort people’s
understanding of immigrants across the board.”

“One of the things that no one
remembers is that those gangs did not form in El Salvador…all those gangs have
their origins in Los Angeles in the 80s and the 90s,” he continued.

“They didn’t get involved in
those gangs because they are Salvadorans, they got involved in those gangs
because they were teenagers growing up in inner city Los Angeles. Those gangs
were, in many ways, an American creation and they resulted in a failure of
America to provide a future of hope for their inner city kids,” Wenski said.

Gerschutz-Bell offered a similar
reminder.

The truth, she told Crux,
is that “these youth are fleeing violence and poverty; some are forcibly
recruited by gangs in Central America. They are not the gang members; they
are fleeing the gang members! They flee to an America that made its reputation
for greatness on welcome, opportunity, and individual protection.”

As part of their visit, the
bishops will celebrate Mass April 12 at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington, which holds claim to the nation’s oldest El Salvadoran community.

Bishop Michael Burbidge of
Arlington will join the celebration, which he described as an opportunity to
“lift up the people of El Salvador” and “recognize their presence” within the
diocese.

Bishop Burbidge told Crux that
the diocese is home to at least 125,000 El Salvadoran Catholics and likely
more, who “contribute greatly to our workplaces, schools, neighborhoods, and
especially our parish communities.”

“We rely on people from El
Salvador to help us welcome the newcomer that comes into our diocese and only
speaks Spanish,” he added.

He said that this week’s visit,
while having political ramifications, is ultimately pastoral in nature.

“As a bishop, we’re entrusted
with the care of the flock of the people of God and that involves the whole
person-body, soul, and spirit,” said Bishop Burbidge. “So the bishops, of course, from
El Salvador and the U.S., all that we seek to do is lift up the dignity of each
human person.”

“There’s a great need in this
nation for comprehensive immigration reform,” said Bishop Burbidge.

While he maintained that bishops
don’t get involved in the partisan affairs and are there to offer moral
principles, not political ones, he insisted that “we have to be the voice of
the people encouraging the dignity of the human person to be revered and that
includes all God’s people without exception.”

“That’s not even an option,
that’s a mandate – especially for bishops responsible for teaching the gospel,”
he concluded.

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