The May 6 event was third 'Witness to Hope' summit in United States

DETROIT ─ More than 200 people gathered May 6 at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit to discuss the Church’s prophetic witness regarding the debates surrounding immigration and the impact current federal policy has had on immigrant communities over the past two years.

Priests, bishops, parish leaders and immigration rights advocates from 10 dioceses participated in “Witness to Hope: Pastoral Care of Immigrant Communities,” a collaborative effort between the Archdiocese of Detroit, Catholic Charities of Southeast Michigan, the Hope Border Institute in El Paso, Texas, and the Center for Migration Studies of New York, to discuss what the Church can do at the parish and diocesan levels to accompany immigrant communities amidst the expansion of immigration enforcement initiatives taking place during President Donald Trump’s second administration.

This was the third daylong summit, following previous “Witness to Hope” gatherings in Providence, Rhode Island, and Phoenix, Arizona, in recent months.

“The goal here today is to get us energized to take the next steps as dioceses, parishes, religious congregations or as groups of Catholic organizations, because some of you might be doing pretty well in a lot of things,” said Fr. David Buersmeyer, a priest for the Archdiocese of Detroit and chaplain for Strangers No Longer, a Detroit-based, lay-led Catholic immigration rights advocacy group. 

“Then there are some of us who might need to start something, so what are the initial steps? Where we can get inspiration to start?” Fr. Buersmeyer added. 

The conference was attended by clergy and lay leaders from the Archdiocese of Detroit and the dioceses of Gaylord, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing and Saginaw in Michigan, as well as the dioceses of Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo and Youngstown in Ohio.

Detroit Archbishop Edward J. Weisenburger welcomed the various groups advocating for immigrant rights in their communities, including his brother bishops: Bishop Earl A. Boyea of Lansing, Bishop David J. Walkowiak of Grand Rapids and Auxiliary Bishop Jeffrey M. Monforton of Detroit.

The Gospel paradigm

Archbishop Weisenburger recalled his days studying philosophy at UCLouvain in Belgium, where a professor lectured on the dynamics of two people when one helps the other.

“My professor would speak of the face of the other, and when you look into the face of the other who is in need, you discover the other has a hold on you,” Archbishop Weisenburger said. "And if you turn away from that and deny that obligation, it is a denial of our very humanity.”

The archbishop recalled his experiences as the bishop of Tucson, Arizona, where Catholic Charities and the Kino Border Institute were processing up to 1,400 people a day sent to them by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“I found myself looking at the situation and how the public political paradigm was so very different from the Church’s Gospel paradigm,” Archbishop Weisenburger said. “I found myself struggling to bring those worlds together. It wasn’t just the stories of the migrants, immigrants and asylum seekers that came through. It was also the thousands of volunteers who came in day after day. Once they had looked into the face of the other, they could not quit. They recognized that their humanity and their salvation in some way depended on their response.”

It was in this context ─ seeing the presence of Christ in the other ─ that Archbishop Weisenburger suggested those in the Church examine issues related to immigration.

“The political paradigm at the moment is a most painful one,” Archbishop Weisenburger said. “The Gospel is perhaps more prophetic than ever before. Let us continue to be prophetic without losing our souls, with love and hope.”

Preserving human dignity 

The conference featured lawyers and policy experts who delved into Catholic teaching on immigration enforcement and the rights and responsibilities of nation-states in regulating their borders.

“First of all, let me say that Catholic teaching says that sovereign nations do have a right to control their borders, but it’s not an absolute right,” said Kevin Appleby, senior fellow for policy and communications for the Center for Migration Studies. “It must be governed by the preservation of human rights and human dignity. And we see currently that human rights and human dignity are being violated.”

Appleby encouraged attendees to refrain from using vague or commonly used statements, such as “secure the border,” when discussing immigration policy, which often lack clarity and detail.

Catholics can instead look to statements from Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis, recognizing the inherent rights people have to migrate, Appleby said. In particular, Appleby cited St. John Paul II’s 1993 encyclical Veritatis Splendor, which classified mass deportations and the forced removal of people as “intrinsic evil.”

“In November of last year, the U.S. bishops stood up, and for the first time said, ‘We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people,’” Appleby said. “That was a big step by the bishops.”

Appleby cited studies showing that only 2% of immigrants deported were gang members and only 0.5% were terrorists, while more than 50% had no criminal record, contrary to the political rhetoric used to justify mass deportation policies.

“What the bishops are asking for in immigration reform is, first of all, that immigrants with equity, families, jobs, who contribute to communities, should not be enforcement priorities,” Appleby said. “The Church says they should be put on a path to citizenship. There should be immigration reform. These are people who have contributed over the years to the well-being of our communities, who have built equity, bought homes, started businesses and families. They should not be deported. They should be given a chance to become citizens.

“Families, of course, should not be separated,” Appleby added. “And of course, children who often suffer in silence in these types of situations deserve special consideration. The board of bishops also said that due process should be preserved in the system, particularly for those who are seeking protection from persecution.”

The personal costs of deportation

Jazmin Rubio, family programs manager for Catholic Charities of Southeast Michigan’s La Casa Amiga program in Pontiac, spoke about her father's immigration story. 

Rubio described how her father spent two days crossing the desert on his journey to the United States from Mexico. Over the next five years, he worked three jobs and, eventually, saw three of his children go to college.

“I tell you this story to show that as a daughter of an immigrant, I know how it feels to love from far away,” Rubio said. 

In her current role, Rubio said she often sees the personal impact of deportations play out in struggling families.

“I’ve worked with a mom who came to my office looking for assistance. She's been here for 12 years with three children, and then one day, her husband was removed, Rubio said. “He has no criminal record, not even a speeding ticket, and now he’s gone, and she doesn’t know what to do with the house because she has only one income. She is trying to figure out where to live with her three children, because they are now in a friend’s basement.”

Monica Tay Belej, director of the La Casa Amiga Legal Clinic, stressed the importance of speaking with clarity about the facts of immigration.

Belej said on average, immigrants ─ both documented and undocumented ─ commit fewer crimes than the native-born population. 

“Most of our clients come from what we call a ‘mixed-status family,’ meaning that within one household you could have one undocumented parent or one parent who’s currently going through removal proceedings,” Belej explained. 

“We know from our own experiences that if one of our family members is sick or suffering, it affects us all," Belej continued. "Consider a child who was born here in the U.S. to undocumented parents. One day they’re old enough to understand their parents’ future in this country is insecure, that their parents could be deported. Imagine how unsafe their community now feels.”

Daris Bartolon, an asylum-seeker from Guatemala, shared her story of being a victim of domestic assault who fled her home country because political corruption prevented the police from protecting her from her abuser.

She and her daughter fled across Mexico, risking falling into the hands of human traffickers, arriving in the United States and seeking asylum. She wears a court-ordered GPS tether on her ankle while working through the legal system.

“Going through this process is living in fear because while I take care not to break any of the rules immigration authorities put on us,” Bartolon said through a translator, “I worry they still might detain us when I’m taking my child to school.”

After being initially denied asylum without a lawyer, Bartolon contacted Strangers No Longer for legal advice on her options to appeal the judge’s initial decision. 

She was supposed to present herself at court with travel plans to leave the country after the conference, but the judge postponed the procedure until June 1 to hear an appeal. The judge added that personal testimony from community members would help her case.

“Strangers No Longer has been so supportive in a variety of ways,” Bartolon said. “I’m grateful to be with Strangers No Longer’s Circle of Support, especially the other immigrant women in the community who are helping my family and me through this time.”

Upholding immigrant rights

Meghan Kennedy Riordan, an attorney with the Kitch Law Firm in Detroit, gave a presentation about the rights people have when interacting with personnel from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security.

Riordan said ICE officers need signed warrants from state or federal judges ─ not an immigration judge ─ and need to wear credentials identifying them as federal officers.

“Knowledge is power, and we need to speak the truth,” Riordan said. “We must speak up and break down these immigration myths. It is not a crime to enter the United States illegally; it’s a misdemeanor. You are not a criminal if you commit a misdemeanor. Being in the United States unauthorized is akin to a speeding ticket.”

Riordan said it is incumbent on people to correct their fellow parishioners, friends and family members when they are mistaken about immigration issues.

“As an employment attorney for most of my career, working the corporate side, I’m here to tell you they have reduced the legal ways to immigrate,” Riordan said. “There are only 85,000 H-1B visas allowed in the United States right now. It's a lottery system. For the last five to six years, on average 400,000 people go into that lottery for 85,000 visas.”

Riordan said the current system favors immigrants with master’s degrees trained to work high-income positions.

“There are employers out there that would hire immigrants in a New York minute,” Riordan said. “I represented a company out in Madison Heights where the majority of their plant floor was TPS workers because they showed up to work. And they were happy to have them. They had over 100 people on their plant floor in the last six months; now three-fourths of that floor has been eliminated.”

Riordan added that parishes with prominent immigrant populations should prepare for eventualities should ICE commence an enforcement operation on their grounds.

“You need to go out and educate your congregation,” Riordan said. “You need to start putting up signs that say ‘private.’ A deportation order or administrative warrant is not sufficient for them to enter private or non-public areas. Individuals such as secretaries or personnel are not required to answer questions from ICE agents and can ask to see a warrant before allowing entry into private spaces.”

The path ahead

In the second half of the conference, participants broke into diocesan groups to discuss the unique challenges they see in supporting immigrants in their own communities. 

Todd Scriber, education outreach coordinator for the Office of Migration Policy and Public Affairs at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, spoke on a panel about the Catholic response to the current situation regarding immigration.

Schriber was joined by Dylan Corbett from the Hope Border Institute; Sue Weishar, community engagement specialist with the Catholic Immigration Prophetic Action Project; Bill O’Brien of Strangers No Longer; and Astrid Liden of the Hope Border Institute.

“The center of gravity in the immigration debate and the immigration issue has shifted,” Scriber said. “Traditionally, the bishops and the staff at the bishops' conference did a lot in terms of advocacy, legislative efforts, and administrative efforts, and we still do that. There are a lot of staff who do that, but the issue has become so ossified on the national level. Republicans and Democrats taking specific positions in specific ways ─ it's very difficult for us to do anything that's super effective on the legislative front at the moment.”

Scriber said the USCCB used to have a staff of around 180 to work migration issues, but because of a lack of funding due to cuts through the federal executive branch’s Department of Government Efficiency, that number is now six. 

This has led the conference to work more closely with groups like the Center for Immigration Studies, the Hope Border Institute and Catholic Charities across the country.

Scriber pointed to the bishops' November 2025 message on immigration as an indicator of the importance of migration issues. 

“It's the first special message that was released by the body of bishops as a whole since the contraceptive mandate in 2013, so that kind of highlights its importance," Scriber said. "These things don't happen much. And so when they do happen, it's clearly an issue of real deep concern for the bishops.”

The message from the conference passed with overwhelming support, with 216 in support, five in opposition and three abstentions. 

Beyond calling for comprehensive immigration reform, Scriber said the bishops have called on the faithful to lower the temperature of the political rhetoric surrounding immigration. Scriber said the bishops have condemned the vilification of immigrants, voicing concern regarding the conditions in detention centers and then expressed solidarity with migrants and their families. 

“The bishops have called for safe and legal pathways that respect the dignity of migrants,” Scriber said. “The statement did reiterate the ability of the state to control its borders and to manage them.”

Scriber highlighted the USCCB’s “You Are Not Alone” initiative, which provides resources and information to help parishioners understand the Church’s teaching on migration and the efforts people can take to support immigrants in their communities. 

“At its core, it aims to demonstrate in real time the Church living out the spiritual and corporal works of mercy for those who are in need, and there’s really two audiences we have in mind,” Scriber said. “First, the migrants and their families. They're the ones who are immediately affected by this via deportation and family separation.”

Scribner also acknowledged people who work with migrants, noting that they often have an overlooked, thankless job. 

“You don't get the recognition that you deserve sometimes, but we want you to know that the work you do with and for migrants is important," Scriber said.  

Others on the panel discussed strategies at both the diocesan and parish levels to assess which initiatives supporting immigrants can begin or be expanded. These include creating free legal clinics so immigrants are represented at court hearings, prayer vigils at detention facilities, and communicating with local law enforcement about their concerns regarding cooperating with ICE and DHS in federal cases. 

As people of hope, Catholics have a critical role to play in being clear, effective communicators in conversations about immigration, Fr. Buersmeyer told Detroit Catholic at the end of the conference.

The “Witness to Hope” conferences stem from the need to respond to the damage done by the policy of mass deportation, which has wounded individuals, families and communities, including deaths of both immigrants and citizens alike, Fr. Buersmeyer said.

The public debate about immigration policy, both its substance and the manner in which it is enforced, remains contentious and will continue to be so, Fr. Buersmeyer acknowledged. However, it’s important for people to become informed about the Church's teaching on the rights and responsibilities of all people, he added.

“Pope Francis, Pope Leo, even our Archbishop Weisenberger has written some things on immigration,” Fr. Buersmeyer said. “The Church can be a very public moral voice for the proper care of all people, but in this case, especially immigrants, for their dignity and respecting their basic rights.

“What the Church is capable of doing is showing that it's not based on political ideology; it’s not Democrat versus Republican,” Fr. Buersmeyer added. “It's based on the Gospel and putting that Gospel into practice in terms of our moral teaching that goes all the way back to Jesus. We have the authority in the sense of the entire Catholic tradition, moral tradition, that impels us in a sense to stand with immigrants in this situation.”

Debates surrounding immigration can often turn contentious, he said, but the Gospel applies to everyone in all situations.

The Church has an obligation to speak out against injustice, to teach the truth and encourage everyone to see Christ in the other person, Fr. Buersmeyer said.

The legal process is "almost impossible" for many people to go through, Fr. Buersmeyer said, adding if they could go come into the country legally, they would. 

“Some (critics) will always fall back on, ‘It’s illegal that they’re here,’” Fr. Buersmeyer said. “But quite frankly, they don't have the facts. Our Constitution is very clear, and it applies to everyone living here, documented or not: You have due process rights that are provided to you by the Constitution. We can't violate those, and the Church speaks up when those are being violated.”