‘Judge each case on its merits’ – Catholic World Report

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 19, 2025 / 18:53 pm (CNA).

In an op-ed criticizing the current U.S. administration’s mass deportation efforts and immigration raids, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gómez urged the federal government instead to take a case-by-case approach on how it handles immigrants who are in the country illegally.

Gómez, who is himself an immigrant from Mexico and a naturalized citizen of the United States, penned the op-ed in the archdiocese-run Angelus News, in which he argued that the country needs “a new national conversation about immigration.”

According to Gómez, the conversation should be one that is “realistic and makes necessary moral and practical distinctions about those in our country illegally.”

The archbishop wrote that he is “deeply disturbed by the reports of federal agents detaining people in public places, apparently without showing warrants or evidence that those they are taking into custody are in the country illegally,” which he argued is “causing panic in our parishes and communities.”

“People are staying home from Mass and work, parks and stores are empty, the streets in many neighborhoods are silent,” Gómez indicated. “Families are staying behind locked doors, out of fear.”

Although the archbishop said “we may agree” that the previous administration in Washington “went too far in not securing our borders” and allowed “far too many people to enter our country without vetting,” he contended that the Trump administration “has offered no immigration policy beyond the stated goal of deporting thousands of people each day.”

“A great nation can take the time and care to make distinctions and judge each case on its merits,” the archbishop wrote.

Gómez stated that deportations for “known terrorists and violent criminals” are proper and that “we can tighten border security” and work to help employers ensure “the legal status of their employees.”

The archbishop went on to call for reforming the legal immigration system “to ensure that our nation has the skilled workers it needs” and maintains a “commitment to uniting families.” He further argued the government “should restore our moral commitments to providing asylum and protective status to genuine refugees and endangered populations.”

In addition, Gómez wrote that the solution should include a way for people “who have been in our country for many years” to obtain legal status. He noted that two-thirds of immigrants who are in the country illegally have been here for more than a decade and some were brought here as small children.

“The vast majority of ‘illegal aliens’ are good neighbors, hardworking men and women, people of faith,” the archbishop wrote. “They are making important contributions to vital sectors of the American economy: agriculture, construction, hospitality, health care, and more. They are parents and grandparents, active in our communities, charities, and churches.”

Gómez, who has been critical of the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans since the president took office, published the June 17 op-ed amid ongoing protests against immigration enforcement raids in Los Angeles, the country’s second most populous city.

The protests started on June 6 after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested more than 40 immigrants in Los Angeles who were in the country illegally.

In an interview with CNA, Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge who is now resident fellow in law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), disputed some of the archbishop’s characterizations of the Trump administration’s deportation efforts. CIS, which refers to itself as a “low-immigration, pro-immigrant” think tank, has been closely aligned with many of the Trump administration’s immigration initiatives.

Arthur, who is Catholic, noted that ICE arrested fewer than 50 people in Los Angeles on June 6 in a city where there are more than 900,000 immigrants who are in the country illegally. He noted that the arrests represented .004% of that population.

As Arthur sees it, the ICE raids in Los Angeles were focused on “businesses that are exploiting workers” and “individuals who have criminal histories.”

“Respectfully, I think that the bishop is working off of a misinformed belief of what’s happening,” Arthur said.

“Many of these reports are overblown,” he said. “Some of them are erroneous and some of them are just downright lies.”

Arthur argued that “statements like this feed the very panic that he’s attempting to address,” asserting that “I haven’t seen that there have been massive sweeps of individuals in the United States.”

Since President Donald Trump assumed office five months ago, ICE has deported more than 100,000 immigrants who were in the country illegally, according to the White House. The administration has also sought to encourage those in the country illegally to self-deport as well. CIS estimates that there are nearly 15 million immigrants in the country illegally.