World Watch: Welcome the Stranger

As the United States navigates a turbulent 2026, the immigration landscape has been defined by a sharp escalation in federal enforcement. The rapid expansion of mass detention and deportation has created a humanitarian crisis for immigrant families and their communities. In response, Catholic leaders and advocates are raising a unified moral voice, insisting that national security must not come at the cost of human dignity.

As part of this prophetic response, the Maryknoll Joint Leadership released a statement on U.S. immigration policy in March. Representing the Maryknoll Sisters, Fathers and Brothers, Lay Missioners and Affiliates, the statement draws on decades of global experience accompanying displaced peoples. The Maryknoll leaders express profound concern about the shift toward punitive policies that prioritize exclusion over encounter and unequivocally reject the trend toward indiscriminate detention.

The statement offers a searing moral critique of the current situation: “To criminalize the act of seeking safety and to profit from the incarceration of our brothers and sisters is a collective failure of conscience that denies the inherent sanctity of every human life.”

The leadership further emphasizes that these policies do not exist in a vacuum, stating, “We cannot ignore the role of U.S. foreign and economic policies in fueling the very displacement we now seek to penalize at our borders.”

The human costs of these policies are being felt far beyond the border, reaching deep into the United States. In a webinar titled “Witnessing ‘Neighborism’ amid the U.S. Federal Government Siege of Minnesota,” Greg Darr, a returned Maryknoll lay missioner, reported on the local fallout of harsh practices of immigration agents. Darr described the state-sanctioned violence that brought turmoil to the Twin Cities — but also an unexpected wave of grassroots resistance.

Reflecting on communities’ refusal to see their immigrant neighbors as “others,” Darr noted a spiritual resilience emerging from the crisis. “In the face of such overwhelming force, we are seeing the birth of a ‘neighborism’ that refuses to let fear dictate our relationships,” Darr said. “People are discovering that their faith requires more than just passive concern; it requires standing as a shield for the person next door.”

This call to action is echoed nationally by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which offers an online tool for people to tell members of Congress to “ensure immigration enforcement respects human dignity and religious freedom for all.” The bishops warn that enforcement tactics now being used often infringe upon the religious freedom of those seeking to provide charitable aid and spiritual accompaniment to migrants.

The Maryknoll joint leadership statement concludes with a final challenge to the faithful and the nation alike: “Our faith demands that we move beyond a politics of fear and toward a theology of hospitality that recognizes no borders to God’s love.”

Featured image: An 8-year-old girl arranges luminaries with messages about her mother, a DACA “dreamer,” during a vigil in Chelsea, Massachusetts, a community affected by raids and detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (OSV News/Brian Snyder/Reuters/U.S.)

An 8-year-old girl arranges luminaries with messages about her mother, a DACA “dreamer,” during a vigil in Chelsea, Massachusetts, a community affected by raids and detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (OSV News/Brian Snyder/Reuters/U.S.)