Catholic church leaders in the United
States have signed a letter urging the Senate not to fund the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) unless an
appropriations bill includes protections for migrants.
More than 300 Catholic leaders said the homeland security budget “risks entrenching harm rather than promoting justice or public safety” if it “priorities detention and removal – while lacking strong safeguards for family unity, due process, and accountability”.
New Jersey Cardinal Tobin described ICE as “lawless” while speaking at an online interfaith prayer service on 26 January, and urged lawmakers to cut its funding.
“How will you say ‘no’ this week when an appropriations bill is going to be considered in Congress? Will you contact your congressional representatives, the senators and representatives from your district? Will you ask them, for the love of God and the love of human beings, which can’t be separated, to vote against renewing funding for such a lawless organisation?”
The wider Catholic Church also expressed sorrow following the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents, with the Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, saying the Holy See “cannot accept episodes such as these”.
“Issues, problems, contradictions should be resolved in other ways,” Parolin added.
In a separate joint statement, Cardinal Robert McElroy called the killings a “profound moral failure” that “demand[s] our collective attention and response”.
“The murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti – two US citizens devoted to civic engagement and to caring for their immigrant neighbors – have left communities in Minneapolis and across the nation grieving, shaken and rightly outraged,” the statement read.
The Department of Justice said late last week it had opened a civil rights investigation into Pretti’s death, with US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche saying it was a “standard investigation by the FBI when there are circumstances like what we saw”.
“We’re looking at everything that would shed light on that day,” Blanche told reporters, adding the investigation would “to the extent it needs to” involve lawyers from the civil rights division.
Two agents involved in Pretti’s shooting have been placed on administrative leave during the investigation, the US Customs and Border Protection said on Thursday.
President Donald Trump last week deployed Immigration Czar Tom Holman to Minnesota and removed Border Patrol “commander at large” Greg Bovino, under whose leadership the two fatal shootings occurred.
Trump said his administration plans to “de-escalate a little bit” in Minnesota, while Homan said he plans to “draw down” federal forces on the proviso that local officials cooperate.
“We are not surrendering our mission at all," Homan told reporters. "We’re just doing it smarter."
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