March 1, 2026 Essay: An Issue We Cannot Ignore
Addressing our nation’s response to the immigrants among us, our Catholic Church has been clear in holding to two truths. A nation has the right to secure its borders in the furtherance of the common good. At the same time, every person who has entered this country has an inherent dignity that must be respected and protected. These are the twin truths that must guide our response to the current crisis of immigration enforcement.
Targeted apprehension of those who have violated the welcome they have received, through the commission of violent crimes, is necessary and appropriate. Affording them proper due process, such individuals are appropriate subjects for deportation. What is happening currently, however, is a policy of apprehension and detention of any and all persons who are not currently United States citizens. These apprehensions and detentions are being fueled by arbitrary quotas which, in turn, have led to aggressive tactics by federal agents whose use of force has been highly criticized. The aim is the mass deportation of millions of people without regard to the contribution they have made to our society. Pope Leo and the United States bishops have forcefully denounced efforts at indiscriminate mass deportations.
The detention of all who have been apprehended is part of this policy. In the past, individuals apprehended for being in the United States without status would often result in persons being released on bond while their case was adjudicated so long as there was no history of criminal activity. Detaining all those who have been apprehended is intended to force persons to choose self-deportation over the uncertainty of detention for an indeterminate period. The result has been the rapid opening of detention centers whose conditions have been routinely criticized for failing to provide adequate food, appropriate medical care, and failing to protect the safety of those detained. At least 30 people died in detention last year—the highest number in two decades. There have been at least four deaths so far in 2026. A Cuban immigrant’s death in an El Paso detention center in January was ruled a homicide by the county medical examiner.
We need to put a human face on what our government is doing in our name.
Alberto Castaneda Mondragon was pulled from a friend’s car in Minneapolis in January. He was a roofer without legal status in this country. He was taken to a local hospital after federal agents alleged that he “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall.” He had suffered eight fractures in his skull that the medical team determined were not consistent with running into a brick wall. At least one ICE officer later told staff at the medical center that Mondragon “got his (expletive) rocked.” Released from custody, he continues to suffer the consequences of a traumatic brain injury.
An 18-month-old baby, Amalia, was held with her parents at a south Texas detention facility. Amalia became sick and her condition rapidly deteriorated. Taken to a San Antonio hospital, she was treated for pneumonia, COVID-19, RSV, and severe respiratory distress. Despite warnings from medical experts that the toddler remained medically vulnerable and at risk of reinfection, immigration officers returned Amalia and her mother to the detention center. There she was denied prescribed medication and nutrition supplements doctors provided. Aggressive efforts by Elora Mukherjee of Columbia Law School’s Immigrants Rights Clinic eventually secured the families’ release from detention.
“Solving our immigration problems will have to include controlling our borders and deporting undocumented individuals who have committed violent crimes. But solutions rooted in the order of grace cannot countenance the vilification of the undocumented or the indiscriminate deportation of millions of undocumented men and women…who have lived productively and peacefully in our land for decades and who contribute to our society so many of the values that we are desperately in need of.” Cardinal Robert McElroy, Archbishop of Washington, D.C.
— Fr. Mark Hallinan, S.J., Associate Pastor