Bishop Mark J. Seitz walks with a young Honduran migrant at the Lerdo International Bridge in El Paso, June 2019. (CNS photo/Jose Luis Gonzalez, Reuters)
An interview with Bishop Mark J. Seitz.
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Bishop Mark J. Seitz leads the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, on the U.S.–Mexico border. The diocese includes ten counties in far West Texas covering more than 20,000 square miles. Two weeks ago, Bishop Seitz met with President Biden during the president’s trip to El Paso. Commonweal contributor John Gehring recently spoke with the bishop about that meeting and what leaders in Washington who are thousands of miles away from the reality on the border should know about migrants.
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John Gehring: When President Biden visited El Paso, you had a conversation with him in the presidential limousine. What did you tell him and how did he respond?
Bishop Seitz: El Paso is at the crossroads of migration. For us, it was important for the president to understand that we really can meet the challenges of migration in a way that’s true to our values, and can do it with compassion and dignity. It was a bit heady to be swept away by the Secret Service for a one-on-one talk with the president of the United States — who gets a chance like that? Our conversation was private. But he’s the president and I’m a bishop and when people are in confined spaces with a priest they tend to open up. So you can imagine that naturally we spoke about faith and how he himself understands this unique role he inhabits in this unique moment in history. I hope we can pick up the thread again. I also thought it was important for him to be in touch with the pain here at the border. You can’t make good policy if you don’t know the pain. I gave him a holy card of the Sacred Heart with a message from a little girl in Ciudad Juárez looking for a chance to reunite with family in the United States.
JG: President Biden has said that he doesn’t like Title 42, the controversial Trump-era policy that has led to the expulsion of migrants seeking asylum. In a recent announcement, the Biden administration said it would open more legal pathways to migrants, but at the same time expanded restrictive policies that will mean migrants from Nicaragua, Cuba, and Haiti will face immediate expulsion to Mexico if they cross the border illegally. The UN Refugee Agency said the restrictions are “not in line with refugee law standards.” Is the administration creating more insecurity and fear on the border?
Bishop Seitz: If he doesn’t like Title 42, it’s because he shouldn’t. The expansion of Title 42, put in place by the previous administration on the false pretense that immigrants bring disease, is unjustifiable. It is probably illegal, and I hope the Supreme Court will see it that way. But as a priest, I need to be clear: Title 42 and policies like it are merciless and are literally killing people by driving them to cross the desert and to drown in the river. Children are dying. Death can’t be an acceptable part of the overhead of our immigration policy. Have we become that numb? There are alternatives. But from experience, I can tell you it won’t be solved with policies that deny asylum to more people, or with walls, deportation, detention, or more money for immigration enforcement. Immigration is a long-term challenge that’s only going to be solved with long-term thinking. We need to pivot to a more humanitarian approach that respects the rights and dignity of people who need to migrate. We need to promote sustainable development abroad so people don’t have to migrate. But politicians can have a hard time seeing the big picture. So as a Catholic community, we’re going to need to lead by our example, and our bishops’ conference will keep pushing the president to make the moral case to the rest of the country that all of this is possible, is achievable, and is the right thing to do.
JG: While you were with President Biden at the airport in El Paso, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott handed the president a letter that accused the president of failing to enforce federal immigration laws and said he is promoting “open border policies.” Meanwhile, the governor (who is Catholic) has been sending migrants from Texas to cities led by Democratic mayors. What do you make of the governor’s approach, and have you had a chance to speak with him about the Church’s position on these issues?
Bishop Seitz: I had a chance to greet Gov. Abbott when he came to El Paso. The bishops of Texas have been able to have a dialogue with him about the Gospel for years. I think the governor knows where we stand. I want to believe he’s trying to find his way to the light, too. In my experience, the challenges of immigration and its causes and effects are so tangled that you can only begin to get to solutions when the federal government, the states, and local communities are rowing in the same direction. We all know this is a broken system but local communities, our faith communities, and our Catholic agencies are largely picking up the pieces at the border. So whenever you put politics before collaboration, you aren’t helping the cause. As we say in Texas, that dog won’t hunt.
JG: Politicians in Washington are thousands of miles away from the lived reality you see on the border every day. When you talk to migrant families, what are you hearing from them, and what should political leaders know about their lives?
Bishop Seitz: People seem to think that those who are coming to our border are looking for a better life. That’s true. But what I’ve also found is that a lot of people aren’t just seeking a better life, but to be able to live at all. Especially women. There are too many women who come with physical, psychic, and spiritual wounds; it’s a sad reflection on our lack of respect for women. They’re fleeing desperate situations and looking for a shot to live with a little dignity. They just want to support their families, work, and be part of our communities. Through our Border Refugee Assistance Fund, we’ve been able to help women who’ve been through so much trauma. I can’t tell you how humbling it is to witness their strength in adversity. It’s a sin that Washington can’t secure the protections of vulnerable people at the border, that we can’t pass immigration reform, and, more broadly, that we continue to treat certain groups of people as disposable.
El Paso is a great example of how we have nothing to fear from migrants. If you only listened to politicians in Washington, you wouldn’t know this, but one-quarter of our community was born abroad. We are more than 80 percent Mexican American. People here have been coming and going since before this country existed. And we’re a beautiful, vibrant, and safe community for it. I feel like I’m the bishop of the best diocese in the country. Our parishes are filled with life and song and joy. We’re better off for our diversity. It’s certainly not without challenges, but the work of welcome is really transformative.
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JG: Comprehensive immigration reform that would offer pathways to citizenship for migrants used to have some bipartisan support in Congress. That has not been the case for a while now. What happened and what will it take to revive that kind of legislation?
Bishop Seitz: Fundamentally, we need to stop running scared. There are smart, committed people in Washington, but on the whole, when it comes down to it, half our lawmakers are running scared from migration and the other half are peddling unfounded fears about immigrants. So there’s a lot of fear. On a spiritual level, fear is poison. It makes you want to possess and master and be defensive. That’s what you hear in rhetoric about sealing the border or in language that demonizes refugees. But fear blinds us to the reality that we might be transformed and freed for another sort of future — reconciliation, the Reign of God, a community that makes space for everyone. The Church has to work for immigration reform, but we can’t ignore how dysfunctional and fear driven our politics is right now. Some of that’s cable TV and some of it is gerrymandering and other legal factors. But it’s deeper than that. Never mind welcoming the stranger, we’ve become strangers to one another. That’s an infirmity of the soul.
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JG: Last November, your fellow bishops elected you to become chairman of the U.S. bishops’ migration committee. What are your goals for that role?
Bishop Seitz: Above all, I want to be a servant to my brother bishops in the conference, to read the signs of the times with them, interpret the magisterium of Pope Francis on this issue in our American context, and do my part to help revitalize our witness to the social gospel. I also want to find creative ways to make sure migrants and refugees feel that the Church is with them. Wherever they’re from, whatever their documentation status, whatever their faith commitment might be, they should feel that the Church is on their side and rooting for them. They need to feel God’s mercy in everyday life. We’ve got to be ministers of joy. I want to understand from immigrant leaders how our Church can better stand with them in their work for reform so our advocacy can be grounded. There are so many inspiring immigrant leaders who are showing us the way. Many of them were formed in our parishes and Church halls.
We’ve also got to work to reduce inequality and injustice abroad so people don’t have to migrate. I ministered for a while in Honduras and I learned how important it is to be in touch with the pain in those countries. This is where the Church can play an important role. As a global Church, we can build bridges with faith communities in sending countries to learn from them and better understand how we can stand alongside them in their struggles.
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