Bending the Arc

During a private meeting at the Vatican in October, Pope Leo blessed American bishops and representatives of the Hope Border Institute and others who assist migrants in the United States. He said the U.S. bishops’ special pastoral message on immigration is “a very important statement. I would invite especially Catholics, but people of goodwill, to listen carefully to what they said.”

If you missed that statement, you can also watch it being read here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsMQ8V4pNCI 

Concerned about your immigrant neighbors? Understand ways you can help in your areas. Here in Wisconsin, visit Voce de la Frontera to learn how you can help. Voces provides a 24-hour emergency hotline in multiple languages to offer support. Call 800-427-0213. Voces also offers “Know Your Rights” training and much more statewide. Become a member and support their good work.

And stay in touch with WISDOM to learn more about 287(g) agreements between ICE and local law enforcement, plus other training to support immigrants, also statewide.

There are three models of the 287(g) program. The Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Department has been in an agreement under the Warrant Service Officer model since 2020. This allows certified officers to serve and execute immigration warrants, but only to individuals already detained for local criminal charges, not immigration violations alone. At the end of their jail time, for local criminal charges, undocumented inmates continue to be held until ICE picks them up. FDL County Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt has reassured concerned citizens that his deputies do not detain individuals in court solely based on ICE warrants and he believes “the immigration debate overlooks a critical group of people: the millions of undocumented individuals who contribute to our communities and economy without violating other laws beyond our nation’s immigration laws.”

The most concerning, and the one that seems to be growing in popularity throughout the country, is the Task Force Model as it supports racial profiling and gives an extraordinary financial incentive to law enforcement agencies if they allow their already trained officers to also enforce immigration authority with ICE oversight during their routine police duties.

It is important to understand the facts about “criminal immigrants.” The truth is, most agree that violent undocumented criminals should be deported. But what many don’t understand is that a small percentage of immigrants taken in major ICE operations actually have a criminal history. As this NYTimes article reports, only 6% of immigrants arrested in Los Angeles had violent convictions and 57% had no criminal charges. In Illinois and Washington D.C., those numbers are even more shocking with only 3% with criminal conviction and 66% with no criminal charges in Illinois and 2% with no violent convictions and 84% with no criminal charges in D.C. during periods of federal operation in each area. Read more here.