For Immediate Release: January 13, 2025
Contact: Heather Cabral, 202-550-6880, hcabral@faithinaction.org
NEWARK, New Jersey – Local and national faith leaders, including Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R, Archbishop of Newark, and Bishop J. Mark Seitz of El Paso, gathered in Newark to pray and advocate for the protection of migrant families at risk of deportation and separation due to anticipated policy changes with the incoming presidential administration. The leaders, representing a broad coalition of Christian clergy, rabbis, and imams, united for an interfaith prayer service at St. Lucy’s Parish. The event was organized by Faith in New Jersey and Faith in New York, which are local federations of Faith in Action, in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Newark.
Together, the faith leaders voiced a resolute stand against policies that threaten the unity of migrant families, vowing to protect sensitive locations such as houses of worship and schools from raids or deportation actions.
Bishop Dwayne Royster, executive director, Faith in Action, opened the interfaith event with prayer and said, “We are siblings, and it will take all of us from our different faith traditions, races, and ethnicities, those of us who come from different countries to come together to build the world that we want to see.”
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., Archbishop of Newark, said, “We’re deeply concerned about the potential impact of mass deportation on children and families. Within the Catholic tradition and other faith expressions represented here today, we’re able to see the humanity in everyone. We’re able to care for everyone, especially the most vulnerable: the children, the widows, the poor, the orphans, and yes, the immigrants. . . we show our love for immigrant brothers and sisters through four actions: first, Encounter – listening to each others’ stories, sharing experiences, and building trust; second, Accompaniment – walking with them in solidarity as they build their lives; third, Prayer – welcoming them into our faith communities and lifting them up in prayer; and fourth, Advocacy – working together to shape public policies that welcome immigrants and protect families, ensuring they are not subjected to mistreatment, violence or harm.”
Bishop Mark Seitz, Diocese of El Paso and chair of the USCCB migration committee, said, “In the face of tactics of intimidation and division, the Catholic Church will work to protect our families, to witness to human dignity, to defend our religious liberty, to oppose the shutting down of our borders and our hearts, to march and work for immigration reform and good laws, to pour cool water on embers of hate, to preach the Good New and to oppose mass deportations…We need to be free to pick up our children at schools. There’s an ugly rumor that the incoming administration would permit immigration enforcement in these holy places. Intimidating God’s people in their temples, schools, and hospitals would not be a good use of the law. It would be destructive to the common good. If it should come to pass that the new administration overturns sensitive location policy, then we should oppose this with our prayer and our fasting. We have to raise our voices to oppose it.”
Four out of five undocumented people in the United States have been in the country for more than 15 years. That is nearly 9 million people who are deeply rooted and invested in their communities. Elsa, a leader with Faith in New York, is one of those people and said: “Parents in my community fear doing basic daily tasks like taking our kids to school or our neighborhood parks because we worry about being detained in front of the children. We fear reporting crimes to the police because they could collaborate with ICE. We even worry about going to hospitals because we don’t feel safe.
Jamie Beran, chief executive officer of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, recommitted to the group’s decades of work with immigrants, noting how standing with immigrants isn’t just the right thing to do, but is critical to everyone’s safety, including non-immigrant American Jews: “A new era of freedom and redemption may come if we listen to our conscience and our own path to survival as people of faith to stand, fearlessly, on the side of our interconnected safety and on the side of life.”
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About Faith in Action
Faith in Action is the largest grassroots, faith-based organizing network in the United States. The nonpartisan organization works with 1,000 religious congregations in more than 200 cities and towns through its 46 local and state federations. For more information, visit www.faithinaction.org.
Faith in Action is a 501c(3). Faith in Action and its affiliates are non-partisan and are not aligned explicitly or implicitly with any candidate or party. We do not endorse or support candidates for office.
About the Archdiocese of Newark
The Archdiocese of Newark serves 1.3 million Catholics across northern New Jersey’s Bergen, Essex, Hudson, and Union counties. Led by Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., the sixth archbishop of Newark, the Archdiocese includes 211 parishes, 67 Catholic schools, and numerous missions and ministries committed to faith, education, and social service. For more information, visit www.rcan.org.
