Agencies involved in deportations have a comprehensive plan “to target Spanish-speaking churches across the country during the upcoming holiday season between Thanksgiving, Nov. 27, and Christmas, Dec. 25,” as first reported by This Week In Worcester, an independent news source that interviewed three Trump Administration attorneys briefed on the plan. Multiple versions of the plan are being reviewed, including an update “to include mosques and liberal synagogues in the wake of Zohran Mamdani’s recent win in the New York City mayor’s race.” It represents a dramatic increase in Trump’s war on the very idea of sanctuary.
While the Trump administration is apparently secretly reaching out to religious leaders to support its plan, the US Conference of Bishops has issued a rare public rebuke. In their first “special message” since 2013, approved 216-5, and released in a video reading by multiple bishops, they said, “Despite obstacles and prejudices, generations of immigrants have made enormous contributions to the well-being of our nation…. Catholic teaching exhorts nations to recognize the fundamental dignity of all persons, including immigrants…. We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people. We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence.”