SW News: President Joe Biden discussed the impact of his administration's recent crackdown on immigration with Bishop Mark Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, during his four-hour visit to the US-Mexico border on Sunday.
Seitz, the chairman of the USCCB Committee on Migration, said he encouraged the president to take into account how the new policy would affect people who were applying for asylum in the country during a press conference after the visit.
The "Remain-in-Mexico" Policy, which mandated that asylum seekers remain in Mexico until their cases could be adjudicated in a US court, was abolished under the Biden administration. Numerous of these migrants were made to wait in dangerous and unhygienic camps close to the border.
Biden had earlier stated that the United States would increase border security and start turning away illegal border migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Haiti.
The new rules would also allow up to 30,000 people from these countries to enter the US legally each month.
Bishop Seitz stated that the bishops oppose the proposed regulations on the grounds that those escaping violence have a right to seek refuge in the United States.
In a statement, he stated, "We welcome the introduction of new legal avenues to the United States, but it is impossible for us to consider this success when those very pathways are conditional on stopping individuals forced to escape their native land from exercising their right to seek asylum at our border."
The statement said that under this approach, many of the most vulnerable will be excluded from relief and subjected to dangerous circumstances, contravening US and international refugee law, as well as Catholic social teaching. Migrants would be able to come for two years and receive work authorization, provided they have an eligible sponsor and can pass vetting and background checks. Bishop Seitz’s message to President Biden was to call attention to the humanitarian side of the crisis.