It is with profound horror and sorrow that we have witnessed the continued actions of the Trump administration towards migrants, persecuting and terrorizing hardworking women, men and children, not criminals but people who came to the country to create a better life.
Most disturbing has been the imprisonment without due process and in many cases without access to legal counsel. Due process is guaranteed to all persons in the U.S. Constitution, regardless of immigration status.
Last week, President Trump and several government officials visited a newly built detention center in the Florida Everglades, the so-called Alligator Alcatraz, a remote location with little protection from the harsh elements. The creation of this facility furthers the descent into deliberate cruelty, and the president himself visited the site, smiling and joking about the dangers of alligators as guards, a despicable disregard for human dignity.
We reject this dehumanizing attitude towards the detained under the thinly-veiled guise of law and order, which, like other steps in recent months, creates a permission structure to ramp up the unbridled cruelty and the militarization of our communities. The funding bill that President Trump signed into law last week will provide billions to supercharge a mass detention and deportation campaign.
Many are being deported to third countries, among them nations with ongoing violence and human rights violations, where they have no access to legal counsel and no path for release.
Scripture tells us to love one another, to welcome the stranger, to help the least among us. The Sisters of Mercy and many other women religious who first came to this country to minister to immigrant families, are seeing up close the harms caused by the cruel policies.
These actions by the Trump administration make a mockery of the Gospel.
Rather than tearing families apart, traumatizing children and caging immigrants, officials should be pursuing real policy solutions such as creating a legalization program for immigrants who have lived in this country for years and contributed their hard work to our economy, as well as creating avenues to uphold the fundamental right to seek asylum, refuge and humanitarian protection.