In supporting refugees, bishops do not support open borders, says USCCB staff member

January 05, 2016

In a reflection for National Migration Week, the education outreach coordinator for the United State Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Migration & Refugee Services said that “the Catholic bishops neither support a policy of open borders nor a process of unregulated migration from one country to another.”

Instead, the bishops “continue to defend the duties of the international community to implement internationally agreed upon protections that are due to vulnerable migrants, and to call upon world leaders to provide a place of welcome, wherever possible, to those who are fleeing an impossible situation,” wrote Todd Scribner.

He added:

In both the unaccompanied migrant child and Syrian refugee crises, the Catholic Church’s call to provide protections and support for these vulnerable people has often gone unheeded and has been instead met by demands to implement further restrictions on migration to the United States.

In the case of Syrians, suggestions have been made to ban Muslim migrants from entering the United States altogether. In the case of unaccompanied children, legislative efforts were undertaken to limit their international protections.

 

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Further information:

• National Migration Week 2016 To Be Celebrated January 3-9 (USCCB)
• National Migration Week 2016: “A Stranger and You Welcomed Me” (To Go Forth)