Following Trump’s election, El Paso bishop expresses concern for migrants in the U.S.

BALTIMORE – While Bishop Mark Seitz has said that he doesn’t want to “get ahead” of President-elect Donald Trump in criticizing potential immigration policies, he has also acknowledged an increased level of concern for the undocumented immigrants already in the United States.

Trump, as part of a hardline approach to immigration, has pledged mass deportations.

Seitz, who is chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Migration recently said that the conference will “raise [its] voice loudly” if that comes to fruition. He told Crux, however, that the fear among undocumented immigrants is already heightened.

“Their level of fear and insecurity has been raised a great deal even before new policies come into play,” Seitz told Crux. “The Biden administration’s actions primarily affected those who were in the sending countries or en route, but the new administration will also focus on people who are already here. …

“They’re in great danger of having their family divided, or being sent back to a place they don’t even know because they’ve grown up in the United States, so there’s a lot of insecurity right now even before the new administration enters,” he said.

Seitz, the bishop of El Paso, spoke with Crux at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops fall general assembly that took place in Baltimore from Nov. 12-14. Trump aside, Seitz that the present immigration situation both inside and beyond the nation’s border has the conference concerned.

Seitz explained that many immigrants are “fearful to stay” but also “fearful to leave” their home countries because the route to the United States has become so dangerous. He said that people have told him and others who work along the border that Mexico is now more perilous than any part of the 3,000 mile route from the northern part of South America to the Texas border.

Migrants are preyed upon at every point by both organized crime and security forces, he explained.

“These people are facing these militarized kind of responses. Already they’re in very difficult straits and there’s very few legal pathways for them to follow, especially when they’re already in a condition where they have to move,” Seitz said. “We’re very concerned about all of them.”

Seitz said that the United States bears culpability in the situation beyond its border because it has “outsourced its border actions to these countries such as Mexico, Guatemala, and Panama, and so on.” He added that as lawmakers at every level consider immigration policies going forward, they need to consider the actual human impact the policies will have.

Seitz noted that too often modern political discourse talks about policies in abstract ways, and therefore often ignores the real impact on human beings a policy could have. He said that good policies take into account the likely impact it will have, and the intended and unintended consequences that might come.

“[Policy] has to be rooted in real human beings, and for us Christians it has to be rooted in the teachings of Christ. Sorry. No exceptions,” Seitz said. “We have to root what we do in the teaching of Jesus Christ, otherwise it is not good human action and not good policy.”

Seitz was installed as the bishop of El Paso in 2013, which means he has worked with local, state, and federal officials on immigration through former-President Barrack Obama’s second term, Trump’s first term, and President Joe Biden’s current term that concludes in January. He also worked with the Biden administration – and even met with the president in 2023 – in a more national capacity in his role leading the USCCB Committee on Migration, which he assumed in 2022.

Over time, Seitz said he has realized that no matter the administration the Church brings to the conversation a perspective others can’t, considering they’re motivated solely by their sincerely held religious beliefs. He said that allows them to “transcend the political chaos, and in-fighting,” which he said they will continue to do under the second iteration of the Trump administration.

“We’re not going to just be some shrill voice adding to the fray,” Seitz said. “We’re going to be talking to people and trusting that the ones we’re talking to, even if they have a different view, will be able to recognize the reason behind what we’re saying and to come to a deeper appreciation of the impact of our positions, as well.”

The Church also, he added, has an important perspective because they work at the ground level.

“We are present. We’re at the ground level, the grassroots level, in the lives of people,” Seitz explained. “Not only do we have the support of the teachings and action of the Church throughout the world, but we’re there, and that means beyond our countries borders, so we can share the impact of proposed policies in a way that others couldn’t begin to.”