Mayor in Spain removes cross from convent, throws it in dump
- Jan 25, 2021
Merín, an undocumented immigrant from Honduras. gave birth to her daughter next to the Rio Grande, attended to by two Border Patrol agents, showing how lives routinely end up at risk at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Carmelite Father Peter Hinde and Mercy Sister Betty Campbell often share an anecdote when receiving foreign visitors at Casa Tabor, the home in a modest Ciudad Juarez neighborhood near the U.S. border where they’ve lived, worked and welcomed visitors for 25 years.
After visiting a group of pregnant migrant women on the Mexico side of the border, Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, issued strong words June 25 about the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” program and other restrictive immigration measures, saying that turning away those seeking asylum in the U.S. amounts to sending them to their death.
For years, Catholic-led, U.S.-based nonprofits have been at the forefront of efforts to support migrants and asylum seekers along the Mexican border. Tough new border policies, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, have drastically changed their work, much of which now takes place in Mexico.
The “Remain in Mexico” program has forced more than 60,000 asylum-seekers to wait on the Mexican side of the border as their claims are heard in U.S. courts. It has proved controversial as critics contend it destroyed the traditional asylum system.
In a 5-4 vote Feb. 25, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a U.S. Border Patrol agent could not be sued for the 2010 shooting death of a Mexican teenager on the Mexican side of the border.