(Feb. 7, 2024) A long-anticipated supplemental spending package comes to a vote on the Senate floor this afternoon. The provisions of the bill include some of the most egregious immigration and asylum policy proposals seen in recent years. Maryknoll missioners serving on the U.S.-Mexico border released a statement about it.
Maryknoll Lay Missioner Heidi Cerneka, an immigration attorney, said:
Expanding detention further criminalizes people who are seeking protection for themselves and their children. While the language in the supplemental may refer to deterrence, my detained clients point out that when they are shackled and told when they can and cannot shower, eat, or go outside, they are being treated like dangerous criminals. Asylum seekers have often courageously faced threats, extortion, the death of family members in a climate of violence and persecution in their countries of origin and on the journey, and yet, when they ask for asylum and protection, the very government that made such promises, only diminishes and dehumanizes them.
Read the entire statement, with more quotes from missioners on the border, on our website.
While the bill is expected to fail today, we want Congress to know what Maryknoll missioners on the border are saying.
Use the form below to send a message to your member of Congress. Let them know we want to prioritize humanity in all future immigration reform.
Photo of Maryknoll Lay Missioner Heidi Cerneka and migrant América outside of the El Paso Detention Center, Oct. 26, 2020.