“Church teaching clearly acknowledges the right of countries to maintain their borders and regulate immigration, consistent with the common good. That same teaching also recognizes the right of those fleeing persecution and other conditions to seek protection,” Noguchi said.
“The bishops remain committed to supporting policies that respect the sanctity of human life wherever it may be found, to include both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.”
Some Catholic leaders, meanwhile, have spoken out against the proposed rule more strongly.
Jesús de la Torre, a research fellow at the Catholic aid group the Hope Border Institute, said that if implemented as is, the rule “would undermine due process, send potential refugees back to danger, and do nothing to address humanitarian needs at the border.”
According to Torre, “this new rule does nothing but increase the pain and confusion exerted against people seeking safety at the U.S.-Mexico border.”
“Currently, many people are having fear screenings in CBP detention, in rushed and often not private procedures, without accessing counsel, and not knowing what they are going through,” he explained. “Adding another bar to an already cruel, faulty process may send more bona fide asylum seekers into danger.”
‘This rule does nothing’
Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge and resident fellow in law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, told CNA that the rule essentially re-implements a version of a Trump-era policy that was reversed in the early days of the Biden administration.
Though he believes the rule is “partially a political document” meant to show the administration is concerned about the border, Arthur also expressed concern that the rule “suggests” there is an imminent national security threat to the U.S.
“It doesn’t make any sense for the current administration to do this, because they’d already made the determination that they weren’t going to do it unless there is a serious national security or law enforcement threat that they are concerned about,” he said.
Selene Rodriguez, a native of South Texas and policy leader on border security and immigration at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told CNA that “this rule does nothing” and is essentially political theater on the part of the Biden administration.
(Story continues below)
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She described the current conditions at the border as a narco culture in which drug cartels are in control. Among those most affected, she said, are the people already living in border communities.
“This border crisis has raged on for four years now,” she said. “When you pull members of any of these communities together, the stories are merging, the experiences are merging, the feelings of those experiences are merging. Whether you talk to Republicans or Democrats, at the end of the day, they’re like, ‘We just want our home back.’”
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