White House rejects request from Catholic bishops to pause deportations at Christmas

New York — Florida's Catholic bishops appealed to President Donald Trump on Monday to stop immigration raids during the Christmas holidays. In response, the White House said that everything would continue as usual.

The appeal was issued by the Archbishop of Miami, Thomas Wenski, and signed by seven other members of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops. "The border has been secured. The initial work of identifying and removing dangerous criminals has largely been achieved," Wenski wrote. "At this point, the maximum enforcement approach of treating irregular immigrants en masse means that many of these arrest operations now inevitably catch people who are not criminals, but are here only to work." "A climate of fear and anxiety is infecting not only the irregular migrant, but also members of families and neighbors who are legally in the country," he added. "Since these effects are part of law enforcement operations, we request that the government pause apprehension and raid activities during the holiday season. Such a pause would show decent respect for the humanity of these families."