Trump’s deportations spread fear in ‘widespread manner,’ US Catholic bishops head says

The Trump administration’s mass deportations are spreading fear and uncertainty in immigrant communities across the country, Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Sunday.

“As I said, this is very widespread fear-mongering,” Coakley said during an appearance on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” “So this is something that concerns all of us, that people have the right to live in safety and without fear of random deportation.”

Archbishop Coakley of Oklahoma City called on the administration to “be generous in welcoming immigrants” and said, “We certainly have the right and the duty to respect the borders of our country.”

“There is not necessarily a conflict between defending safe and secure borders and treating people with respect and dignity,” Coakley said. he said. “We always have to treat people with dignity, the God-given dignity. The state doesn’t reward that, and the state can’t take that away.”

POPE LEO

“This is a fundamental principle in Catholic social teaching regarding migration and immigration: People have the right to remain in their homeland, but they should also be allowed to emigrate when conditions in their homeland are unsafe and require moving to a place where they can find peace and security,” he added.

Coakley has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants, though he often aligns himself with the church’s social conservatives. Coakley is one of many Catholic leaders who have criticized Trump’s mass deportation plan as fears of immigration raids have reduced mass attendance in some congregations.

After Trump returned to the White House in January, Coakley issued a statement confirming that “the majority of undocumented immigrants in Oklahoma are upstanding members of our communities and churches, not violent criminals.”

Last month, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted a “special message” criticizing Trump’s mass deportation agenda and “smears” of immigrants, expressing concern about the fear and anxiety that immigration raids are fueling in communities, as well as the lack of pastoral care for immigrants in detention centers.

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Pope Leo XIV called on local bishops to address social justice concerns. (Alessandra Tarantino/AP)

“We are disturbed when we see a climate of fear and anxiety among our people around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement,” the bishops’ statement said. The bishops’ statement, which also opposes “indiscriminate mass deportation of people”, said: “We are saddened by the current state of debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care.”

The special message was approved by Pope Leo Dolan announced earlier this year that he would resign after reaching the age of 75, as required by Catholic law.

“I think we need to look for ways to treat people humanely, to treat people with the dignity that they have,” Leo said last month. “If people are in the United States illegally, there are ways to treat that. There are courts, there is a justice system.”

The pope has previously called on local bishops to voice social justice concerns and suggested that people who support the “inhumane treatment of immigrants in the United States” may not be pro-life.

Archbishop Paul Coakley has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants. (Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP/Getty Images)

Coakley defended the private message on Sunday, saying the bishops were trying to “reassure people” amid growing concerns about immigration screenings in cities across the country.

“In communities with larger immigrant populations, there is a great deal of fear, uncertainty and anxiety due to the level of rhetoric often used when addressing issues related to immigration and threats of deportation,” he said.

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Coakley stated that immigration policy must include respect for human dignity, emphasizing: “I don’t think we can ever say that the end justifies the means.”

“This is a fundamental fundamental thing for us; people must be respected and treated with dignity, whether they are documented or undocumented, whether they are here legally or illegally, without compromising their human dignity,” he said on Sunday.