Catholic organisations have expressed concern about the scope of US President Donald Trump’s day one executive orders and their potential impact on migrants. Source: OSV News.
Among the first acts of his second term, Mr Trump signed a series of executive orders including on immigration, birthright citizenship and climate.
In an event at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., Mr Trump signed a slew of executive orders in front of a crowd of his supporters.
According to announcements from one of his aides, Mr Trump signed orders rescinding 78 of former president Joe Biden’s executive actions, including one that created a task force to reunite families deliberately separated at the US/Mexican border.
Another order suspended some US refugee programs and another withdrawing the US from the Paris Agreement on climate.
In his inaugural address just hours earlier, Mr Trump said he would sign a series of executive orders in the coming days, including declaring a national emergency at the border, shutting down “illegal entry”, and beginning “the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.”
While the specifics on how the White House may carry out a mass deportation program are not yet clear, mass deportations more broadly run contrary to the Second Vatican Council’s teaching in Gaudium et Spes condemning “deportation” among other actions, such as abortion, that “poison human society” and give “supreme dishonour to the Creator,” a teaching St John Paul II affirmed in two encyclicals on moral truth and life issues.
Chieko Noguchi, executive director of public affairs for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the “conference will be carefully reviewing” Mr Trump’s executive orders.
“The Catholic Church’s foundational teaching calls us to uphold the sacredness of human life and the God-given dignity of the human person,” Mr Noguchi said.
“This means that the care for immigrants, refugees, and the poor is part of the same teaching of the Church that requires us to protect the most vulnerable among us, especially unborn children, the elderly and the infirm.”
In a statement, Catholic social justice lobby Network’s Ronnate Asirwatham said: “In the coming days we will see an onslaught of executive orders, proclamations, and legislation that will attempt to criminalise our neighbours, family members, and friends. We will not let our community be divided in this way.”
FULL STORY
Trump’s Day 1 includes executive orders on birthright citizenship, climate (By Kate Scanlon, OSV News)
