Update: As DACA deadline nears, Catholics urge fix for immigration woes

Update: As DACA deadline nears, Catholics urge fix for immigration woes

By Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Last September, as President Donald Trump pulled the plug on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, he also gave Congress a March 5 deadline to find a permanent legislative solution that would help some 800,000 young adults living the U.S. who were brought into the country without legal permission as children.

As the deadline approaches, with no legislative solution in sight for DACA, the U.S. Catholic bishops and other Catholic leaders as well as Catholic organizations from around the U.S. have been loudly clamoring for relief for the young adults.

So far, lawmakers have failed to deliver any solution even as the deadline approaches and the president's repeal of DACA gets tangled up the courts. Some beneficiaries already face deportation and the loss of permits that allow them to work, drive and attend school.

On Feb. 23, officials of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops again urged all U.S. Catholics to participate a "National Catholic Call-In Day to Protect Dreamers" they have declared for Feb. 26. Participants can call lawmakers by calling (855) 589-5698 and visiting https://tinyurl.com/ycjrrxoa for resources in English and Spanish. The phone number is for the Capitol switchboard' callers press "1" to connect to senators and "2" to connect to representatives.

"With the March 5th deadline looming, we ask once again that members of Congress show the leadership necessary to find a just and humane solution for these young people, who daily face mounting anxiety and uncertainty," said a joint statement from Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, USCCB president; Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, USCCB vice president; and Bishop Joe S. Vasquez of Austin, Texas, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Migration.

They are asking Catholics to contact their members of Congress to urge them to: "Protect 'Dreamers' from deportation; to provide them a path to citizenship; and to avoid any damage to existing protections for families and unaccompanied minors in the process."

Many U.S. bishops have been making personal pleas, peppering various social media channels, posting videos on Facebook and YouTube, and tweets urging Catholics to push lawmakers for action.

In the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, a Mass dedicated to Dreamers will be celebrated at Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Los Angeles Feb. 25. It will include testimonials from Dreamers, as DACA recipients are known.

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone made two videos, in English and Spanish, urging participation in the Feb. 26 call-in day. The archbishop's videos can be viewed at https://www.facebook.com/SFHLD or at sfarchdiocese.org/immigration.

In his video message, Archbishop Cordileone said Catholics need to call members of Congress to demand "a legislative fix for DACA, so our brothers and sisters, young people who are here without proper documentation, can get on a track for citizenship and continue contributing to our country, to ask as well for reform of immigration policy that will favor keeping families together. Families are the basic unit of society and society stands and falls on family unity."

In the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Archbishop John C. Wester issued his second action alert in a week asking Catholics in the state to participate in the national call-in day.

"As Catholics, we believe the dignity of every human being, particularly that of our immigrant and refugee children and youth, must be protected," he said in a late Feb. 22 statement. "The sanctity of families must be upheld. The Catholic bishops have long supported undocumented youth brought to the United States by their parents, known as Dreamers, and continue to do so.

"We ask you to engage with your elected officials to voice your support for these young people and call on your members of Congress to find a bipartisan legislative solution to protect Dreamers immediately," added the archbishop, who also pointed Catholics to https://tinyurl.com/y8jznv2z to view a video of Bishop Vasquez discussing the issue.

To help tell the story of DACA recipients, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe also calling attention to a music video by the local band Reviva that depicts agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement picking up three workers, including a teacher and a construction worker. Its message reflects that reality some in the country are facing.

Workers are handcuffed and taken into custody in the "Take Me Away" video, as a little girl arrives home from school to find her parents gone. The songwriter graduated from St. Pius X High School, a Catholic school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. The video can be seen at https://youtu.be/f4N5OuNfofc.

The Ohio-based Association of U.S. Catholic Priests urged its members to fast and pray, but also to call their lawmakers in Washington asking that Congress pass permanent relief for the young adults affected. The group also asked priests to encourage their parishioners to take part in personal and public actions on behalf of DACA.

In a Feb. 21 newsletter, the association asked its members via email to "fast on Fridays in union with Father Gary Graf, the Chicago priest who has been fasting in support of Dreamers every day," and to support Father Ray Pineda, an ordained priest in Atlanta, who has benefited from DACA and also is facing an uncertain future in the country.

Father Graf has announced he will march in front of the White House for 40 hours straight, from 9 a.m. (local time) March 4 through 5 p.m. March 5. The priest said it will be his final attempt to encourage Trump to extend DACA. As he marches he will hold placards illustrating the number of Dreamers who are losing their status per day, 916, and per week, 6,412. By the end of March, he said, 25, 648 will have lost DACA status.

Hundreds of Catholic leaders have declared Feb. 27 a "Catholic Day of Action" in Washington and planned to pray and sing inside the Russell Senate Office Building.

A news release that the group of leaders includes women religious, who will call on House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, a Catholic, to remember Catholic social teaching about the obligation to protect immigrants, and lead House Members in passing a clean DREAM Act.

The measure -- the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act -- has long been proposed. The bill is what gives DACA recipients the "Dreamer" name.

The USCCB also has created a series of videos available on its YouTube channel and Facebook.com/USCCB.

Update: As DACA deadline nears, Catholics urge fix for immigration woes

Now you know the true face of your church man.

When was the last time you heard the Catholic Bishops fighting for American Kids? Yeah, I can't think of one either.

They have Jesus and Churches in THEIR countries...send them all back.

Let their Church take care of them!!!

Congress enacted laws against foreign lobbying specifically for times like these. Despite what religious privilege these RC officials may enjoy, when they step into political lobbying they are under the same laws as everyone else. Lobbying public officials on behalf of foreign citizens can only be done via registered lobbyists----not grassroots efforts.


In fact, some of the left's darlings had complained to the US DOJ during the GWB Administration that there was too much unregistered foreign lobbying at that time.

July 9, 2008

Mr. Glenn A. Fine
United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20530

Dear Mr. Fine,

It has come to our attention that there have been severe lapses in the enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). We would like to know more about the decision-making process behind FARA enforcement and whether or not enforcement has been uneven or lax over time.

As you are well aware, FARA was passed in 1938 and requires disclosure of all lobbying contacts made on behalf of foreign governments, individuals, political parties, and corporations. Disclosure is important in order for the American public to know who is influencing U.S. policy from abroad. Recently, we introduced the Closing the Foreign Lobbying Loophole Act (S. 3123) in order to close two loopholes in the law that allow certain foreign agents to operate without the sunlight of disclosure.

We believe that the requirements under FARA are clear and should be enforced in all circumstances. Violations of the disclosure law that go unpunished can undermine U.S. policy and pose national security risks to the American people. Furthermore, any specter of uneven or lax enforcement can render a very important statute toothless.

We know that you share our commitment to maintaining the public’s trust in government. We believe that allowing individuals to break the law and operate in the dark on behalf of foreign entities will erode this trust we hold so dear. Therefore, we request an examination of the Department’s enforcement record on FARA, including an analysis of all the considerations taken into account when the Department determines whether or how to enforce the law. We hope that you take appropriate steps within your Department to look into the causes of uneven or lax enforcement and provide the Attorney General or his appropriate subordinate with suggestions on how to fix any enforcement problems immediately. We also request that you transmit to us, and the appropriate congressional committees of jurisdiction, a report on your findings.

We look forward to hearing from you on this matter.

Charles E. Schumer
United States Senator

Claire McCaskill
United States Senator

Barack Obama
United States Senator

(portion of letter from Sen. Chuck Grassley which explains what the purpose of the Foreign Agents Registration Act is, which was followed up in the Clinton years by the Lobbying Disclosure Act))The FARA requires individuals to register with the DOJ if they act, even through anintermediary, “as an agent, representative, employee, or servant” or “in any other capacity” at thebehest of a foreign principal, including a foreign political party such as the Georgian Dream, forpurposes of engagement with a United States official.10 The registration applies to anyone whoattempts to influence a U.S. government official on behalf of a foreign principal in an effort to“formulat[e], adopt[], or chang[e] the domestic or foreign policies of the United States.”11Likewise, an individual whose activities are subject to registration under FARA and who sendsinformational material “for or in the interest of [a] foreign principal” with the intent or belief thatsuch material will be circulated among at least two persons must transmit the material to theAttorney General no later than 48 hours after actual transmission. Notably, an ongoing failureto register with the DOJ is a continuing offense.