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Religious leaders urge mercy, compassion toward migrants amid Trump’s immigration crackdown [1]

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Date: 2025-03-24

Hundreds of El Pasoans, including many from different religious denominations, received a message of mercy, compassion and camaraderie from religious leaders who gathered and marched for migrants Monday night.

The speakers, led by El Paso Catholic Bishop Mark Seitz, said this was the time to step up and speak out to elected leaders at the local, state and national levels against deportation in this moment of trial for the United States of America.

What started as a rally at San Jacinto Plaza continued onto the streets as loud and colorful matachines led a march that extended several blocks for the half-mile trek to Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 602 S. Oregon St., in Segundo Barrio. A line of bishops stretched across the width of the street.

An interfaith group, including Catholic bishops from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central America, march through downtown El Paso in support of migrants, March 24, 2025. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

In the church, Seitz told the standing room-only crowd that the Trump administration was leading a war on the poor, and that an attack on immigrants is an attack on the family of God. He added that this was not a time for neighbors to be cowed or intimidated.

“If we do not speak up, if we do not act, the war will not end,” he said to supportive applause. He later added, “To all who live in fear, understand the church’s commitment in this hour of darkness.”

Seitz’s bottom line was that he wanted migrants to know that they were not alone, and that the rest of the community should not be afraid to raise its voice because it is still a democracy. He was grateful for the numbers who participated and said they must now express themselves in a strong, peaceful and respectful way.

“It’s time,” Seitz said. “If not now, when? What can bring us together if not the circumstances we’re living in now?”

Seitz was joined at the event, which was done in partnership with Hope Border Institute, by El Paso Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Celino, brother bishops from around the country as well as Mexico and Canada, priests from throughout the diocese, and Cardinal Fabbio Baggio of Bassano del Grappa, Italy. Baggio is undersecretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

An interfaith group, including Catholic bishops from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central America, march through downtown El Paso in support of migrants, March 24, 2025. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

At the rally, Celino shared a commitment for El Paso that included promises of human dignity, family, community safety, prosperity, fairness and a celebration of border heritage.

Dylan Corbett, executive director of Hope Border Institute, echoed Seitz’s hope that participants and the rest of the borderland residents understand that there is a need to stand united in service to those in need through hospitality, compassion and human dignity.

The group encouraged residents to contact their elected officials at the local, state and national levels and express their opposition to the plans for mass deportations and actions to shut down the border. He encouraged people to visit the Hope website, www.hopeborder.org, to learn about their rights and the steps they can take to defend the community and the rights of refugees.

Cardinal Fabio Maggio, right, who works on migrant and refugee issues for the Vatican, watches as a procession led by matachines and Catholic bishops enters Sacred Heart Church for a prayer service in support of migrants, March 24, 2025. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

The decision to use Sacred Heart Church was easy for organizers. It served as a haven for 25,000 to 30,000 migrants from 2022 to 2024. The church’s pastor, the Rev. Rafael Garcia, said the church was happy to serve immigrants in the spirit of Archbishop Oscar Romero, a martyred Archbishop of San Salvador who was killed March 24, 1980.

Among the lay participants was Pat Delgado, a member of Christ the Savior Catholic Church in Northeast El Paso. She read one of the petitions during the service that included songs, readings and migrants who brought offerings to the altar and candles to represent those migrants who died during their journey to a better life.

Delgado, who is part of Pax Christi, a Catholic peace movement, said that the event gave her a sense of hope and solidarity, and a desire to spread more awareness of the unfairness of the current migrant situation.

“Migrants are not the problem and border security is not the problem for our country,” Delgado said. “Migrants contribute a lot for our economy.”

An interfaith group, including Catholic bishops from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central America, march through downtown El Paso in support of migrants, March 24, 2025. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

Another one of the speakers at the San Jacinto Plaza rally was Ruben Garcia, director of Annunciation House. He said that the event was important to embolden the community to make politicians aware of who they were, how they felt their values were being threatened.

He said he hoped that the night’s participants would spread the word of hope from the evening’s event and that more people would be ready to roll up their sleeves in this fight to provide migrants with dignity.

While optimistic, Ruben Garcia said what concerns him is that the situation will become much more difficult for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the region and around the country.

“The price that (the Trump administration) is going to attempt to exact from people, the division, that’s what’s going to keep me up at night,” he said.

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[1] Url: https://elpasomatters.org/2025/03/24/el-paso-migrant-protest-vigil-bishop-mark-seitz-hope-border-institute/

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