Protect Our Borders With Humane Enforcement

We must have secure borders. On this liberals, conservatives, and President Trump’s supporters all agree. It is the implementation of policies to secure the border and deport those who are here illegally where the disagreements emerge.
There is general agreement that those here illegally who commit crimes such as possessing weapons, burglary, theft, assault against a police officer, fraud, or other crimes should be deported. However, charging a person with a crime alone can’t be the grounds for deportation – conviction is needed to prevent false accusations that lead to deportation.
Fear among immigrant populations in America is growing as the Trump Administration empowers the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to violate long-held places of sanctuary in America. These protected “sensitive” zones, which included churches, schools, women’s centers, and hospitals, can now be searched, the Department of Homeland Security has ruled.
These areas have been protected under federal policies adopted in 2011 and 2021 but are ages old.
“The concept of sanctuary — that people inside houses of worship enjoy some special protection from agents of the state — goes back centuries. But it doesn’t rest on any firm legal footing,” Nick Pinto of The Intercept, reported. Instead, today it has relied on fears by law enforcement and political administrations of the optics. Photos and videos of law enforcement officers dragging people out of churches or schools could result in a quick and harsh public outcry. Still, it appears that fear is easing.
“Most especially troubling is a deepening fear that churches, schools and hospitals are no longer exempt from ICE agents entering whenever they wish,” one pastor said of the mounting fear among immigrants in America.
Fear-mongering rhetoric and inciting hate towards those who are different from us, is being used to weaken the walls that separate church from state in America, he said.
Immigrants new to this country have always feared ICE arrests, but those who have been here for decades and have lived with this reality now see their worst fears heightened as broad enforcement efforts become more accepted.

Bishops – Protect families
“Sadly, our nation’s immigration system is broken. For too long, our laws on paper said ‘stop, no entry,’ while in fact, for economic and political reasons, undocumented migrants were allowed inside, sometimes with the encouragement of business interests and even our government,” a letter sent out last week by the Catholic Bishops of Minnesota stated.
“This leadership failure has resulted in repeated conflicts at the border and in our communities that have only grown worse.”
Minnesota’s bishops are concerned about what the violation of formerly protected areas means.
“It is often precisely in these places that we, as Catholics, respond to Christ’s command to care for our ‘neighbors’ without discrimination. It is not difficult to imagine how the changed policy could interfere with the exercise of our faith to serve those in need,” they said.
The bishops pointedly opposed action that “threatens to unnecessarily or unjustly separate the families of those we have come to know as our brothers and sisters in Christ.”
They see many of these families strengthening the communities where they live and work.
“Families—especially those with minor children and those whose children or siblings are citizens—should not be separated and deported,” they stress.

Some law enforcement
agencies not assisting ICE
States and cities, even cities in states such as Texas, are saying their law enforcement agencies will not be assisting ICE in rounding up suspected illegal immigrants. While it seems this goes against their mission to “protect and serve” their communities, the opposite is true.
“It would have a very chilling effect on our ability to provide public safety in the city if people were afraid to call the Minneapolis police because they think we’re going to call Immigration on them,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told Minnesota Public Radio.
If schools become targets of ICE enforcement, families fearing separation won’t enroll their kids. They won’t seek medical care for those kids. Families will stop going to church. They won’t seek mental health care.
A Times-Ipsos poll taken since Trump was sworn into office, found that 34% of Americans think separating families is acceptable deportations policy.
Who are these people who support tearing families apart – mothers and fathers from their children, brothers and sisters from one another? It was done under the previous Trump Administration in 2018 and some of those families still search for their loved ones with little hope of finding them. It is an unimaginable and inhumane cruelty.
There are families that have lived for decades in America, with children who have served in the American military, who are doctors, teachers, carpenters, and welders. They were born in America, so under the U.S. Constitution are citizens. Their parents, however, could be deported despite also having become essential to the fabric of their communities.
During President Obama’s eight years in office, he became known as the “Deporter in Chief” as more than 3 million illegal immigrants were sent back to their countries of origin. He enforced immigration policy humanely, with a focus on those who had recently entered the country illegally and not established families here, and those who were criminals.
There is a chance that if mass deportations start, western Minnesota could become a focal point of family separations and protest. It has been suggested that the empty Prairie Correctional Facility prison in Appleton could be used to hold illegal immigrants as they await deportation.
Immigrants are essential to our future in rural America and in the big cities. Most are great people with strong family ties and an exceptional work ethic. Without Hispanic population growth in rural Minnesota, our main streets would see more empty buildings, our schools would have fewer children, our businesses would be even more desperate for employees, our farmers would struggle to raise their crops and livestock, and we would see fewer people in church congregations.