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Jesuit Conference USA President Calls Safeguards to Protect Migrant Lives

Thomas Smolich, S.J.
Thomas Smolich, S.J.

Thomas Smolich, S.J.

BY ISN STAFFFebruary 19, 2014

Voices of faith continue to speak loudly for humane immigration policy.  Jesuit Conference USA president Fr. Thomas Smolich, S.J. published an op-ed in the DC legislative news daily The Hill calling on President Obama’s administration to immediately enact simple deportation safeguards to protect migrant lives.

Fr. Smolich noted the falling failures with our current deportation policies, including:

  • deporting an individual at 3 a.m. when local shelters close their doors at9 pm;
  • leaving the deported migrant at the mercy of local gangs or organized crime for the remainder of the night;
  • failure to return a migrant’s money, cell phone or documents;
  • stranding him or her on the border with no way to contact family, journey home, or prove his or her identity;
  • the deportation of a woman in serious medical distress without notifying Mexican authorities in advance so they can prepare for her care;
  • the separation of family members, sending a woman and her children to one location while deporting her husband to a town hundreds of miles away without providing any information on the spouse’s whereabouts or how to reunite.

Read all of Fr. Smolich’s comments and advocate for humane deportation practices via the Jesuit Conference.

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Trackbacks & Pingbacks

  1. […] In summer 2014, as over 50,000 unaccompanied children from Central America crossed the U.S. Southern border, the Jesuits were in opposition of legislation that would strip children and asylum seekers of much needed protections. Additionally, this week’s letter to Congress is delivered almost a year to the date of when Jesuit Conference then-president Fr. Thomas Smolich, S.J., called on President Obama to protect the lives of migrants. […]

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