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The bishop whose diocese sits on the stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border visited by Pope Francis last year is urging Catholics and elected officials to take action against a dark night of fear and uncertainty facing undocumented migrants currently living there.

Our border community knows the reality of a broken immigration system, Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso writes in Sorrow and Mourning Flee Away, a pastoral letter published on July 18. In it, he condemns the militarization of our border and he calls for a moratorium on the deportation of non-violent immigrants until comprehensive immigration reform is enacted.

Bishop Seitz also announced the creation of a scholarship program for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, known as Dreamers, to attend Catholic schools, and he announced that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol officers would not be allowed on diocesan property without a warrant.

The letter, which the bishop describes as just the beginning of a deeper solidarity with the poor and excluded, comes as Texas prepares to implement a new law aimed at dismantling so-called sanctuary cities as the Trump administration moves forward with plans to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. In May, Catholic bishops vowed to continue fighting many Trump-backed immigration policies, and the mandate for a temporary working group of bishops focused on migration was renewed by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and archbishop of Galveston-Houston.

Bishop Seitz told America he wrote the letter because immigration is a topic that is on the minds of many in our country. Sometimes it feels like the narrative of those who say that immigration is the cause of every problem in our country and that the border is a fearful place seems to be winning out.

In reality, he writes in his pastoral letter, the border is beautiful, rich in history and culture, faith and natural wonder.

This is a place where people of many cultures, languages and nationalities coexist and thrive, Bishop Seitz said. I ask lawmakers and policymakers in other parts of the country to end the demonization of our border, our border residents and migrants.

He said that people living in his diocese tell him that fear among immigrant communities living on the border is on the rise.

Discussing the plight of contemporary undocumented immigrants, he said, Theyre afraid every time they leave home, even to come to church sometimes.

I was approached by a number of teachers, not only from our area but beyond, asking for advice: What do I tell my children who come to school crying, fearful that their parents wont be there when I return from school? They said that theyre even seeing kids having panic attacks and things like that.

Its a very real fear, he added.

Much of the 13-page letter is addressed to El Paso Catholics directly. As your pastor, I cannot ignore the stumbling block of a system that causes so much suffering among Gods people, the bishop writes. Misguided policies and walls are widening the divide between us and our sister city of Ciudad Juarez, deportations are separating parents from children, and harsh political rhetoric is causing fear in our parishes and neighborhoods.

He calls on priests and parishioners to fight the evil of family separation and the expansion of for-profit detention centers, promoted by the president in an executive order issued in January. Bishop Seitz also talks about the need to fight drug abuse, which has been linked to an increase in crime along the U.S.-Mexico border, as well as the mistreatment of asylum seekers and the disparagement of our Muslim brothers and sisters.

The Texas law that will punish cities and counties that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officers is set to go into effect on Sept. 1. According to the Houston Chronicle, the law mandates that local police inquire about immigration status during routine stops, and it levies fines and penalties on sheriffs and police chiefs who refuse to cooperate. Several counties are suing the state over the law, and earlier this year bishops in Texas voiced opposition to it.

Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark called efforts by the Trump administration to crack down on sanctuary cities the opposite of what it means to be an American.

In his letter, Bishop Seitz writes about the practical effects of the law, which he says would raise the spectre of a mass deportation force, and he writes the larger community will be affected, as undocumented immigrants may be too afraid to call the police to report crimes.

In the past undocumented people didnt feel threatened by local police; they felt they could report a crime if they were the victims of one, he writes.

Bishop Seitz, who was appointed bishop of El Paso in 2013, also offered something of a preemptive rebuttal to critics who might say the letter is too political.

There may be those who question whether in these reflections I am not substituting politics for the teaching of the Church, he writes. I answer that as a pastor my duty is to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

He stopped short of joining the so-called sanctuary church movement, in which some houses of worship have promised to shield undocumented migrants from immigration officials, writing that he would not offer false expectations of protection to those facing deportation. Several other Catholic leaders have expressed similar caution about the practice.

Bishop Seitz told America that the diocese lacks ways to protect those people who are facing deportation. Instead, he said, the diocese plans to train lay volunteers who will be part of a rapid response team prepared to help at-risk individuals navigate the legal system should they face deportation.

Were going to offer a course through our lay institute that trains people as advocates, he said. Part of that will be informing them about the protections that they have under the law, like the right to remain silent, that they dont have to let agents into their house without a search warrant and how to prepare families in case something should happen.

Part of the letter is aimed at individuals charged with carrying out federal immigration policy, officers on the front lines who are often nonetheless part of the local community.

Those who administer our nations immigration laws daily face difficult and sometimes dangerous situations, Bishop Seitz writes. I appeal to you, do not ignore the obligations of conscience! Treat all you encounter with dignity and respect and with the American values of fairness and justice.

Bishop Seitz said many law enforcement officers could become more torn about which orders to carry out as immigration policy becomes more extreme.

Many of those who work for border patrol and I.C.E. in our area are people who grew up in this region, and they tend to have a much more balanced perspective than someone who perhaps just doesnt know the reality of living on the border and how interdependent we are, he said.

He said officers facing moral quandaries about carrying out orders that might break up families should evaluate the situations as they arrive and some further prayer and conversation would be necessary to help each person in a particular area of responsibility make a moral decision.

During his apostolic visit to Mexico in 2016, Pope Francis celebrated Mass in Jurez, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso. Before that celebration, the pope faced the United States and silently prayed for individuals who lost their lives trying to enter it. A crowd of children in U.S. custody sat on the El Paso side of the river to pray with the pope.

Bishop Seitz said the situation has only grown more urgent since that prayer service.

Theres much more fear now and many more threats, he said. We were aware that [the Obama administration was] deporting more people than anybody else before them, but at least in general people felt a lot more safe if they were not criminals. Today, everyone feels threatened.

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El Paso bishop: Stop deportations until immigration is fixed ... - America Magazine

WASHINGTON -- It was Sen. John McCain that got Sen. Lindsey Graham started on immigration reform, Graham said in a news conference Thursday.

Graham, R-S.C., recalled that nugget in the news conference with Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., where they announced they were making another run at trying to pass the Dream Act to provide a way for certain young immigrants who arrived or stayed in the country illegally to become legal permanent residents. McCain is recovering from surgery related to a brain tumor.

I got involved because when John ran for president in 2000, he wanted to fix a broken immigration system because he is from Arizona and he sees the down side of illegal immigration, said Graham, who with McCain and Durbin was part of the Gang of 8 that wrote a comprehensive immigration bill approved by the Senate in 2013.

Through his work with McCain on the issue, Graham said he has come to believe that resolving immigration is absolutely necessary for the countrys economic stability and security.

This problem will not fix itself, Graham said. He said the 11 million or so people in the country were able to come here because the country looked the other way.

Versions of the DREAM Act have been introduced over the years and failed to pass, although it has come close a couple of times. Durbin, who first introduced it in 2001, has been working at its passage for so long that Graham referred to him as the great grandfather of the DREAM Act.

The 2017 bill introduced Thursday would make eligible for lawful permanent residence, a step toward citizenship, young immigrants who are longtime resident, are graduating from school or have a GED, are pursuing higher education or serve in the military, pass background checks, can show they are proficient in English and know U.S. history and havent committed a felony or other serious crime.

The legislation was introduced with some urgency because a group of conservative attorneys general have issued an ultimatum to President Donald Trump.

Theyve demanded that by Sept. 5, his administration stop renewing or granting temporary deportation deferrals and work permits to young immigrants through Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, DACA, program authorized by former President Barack Obama.

If the deadline isnt met, the attorneys general have promised to try to end the DACA program in court, where they have a pending legal suit against Obamas attempts to expand the program.

Sen. John McCain (L) speaks with Sen. Lindsey Graham during a committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, United States, July 7, 2015. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque - RTX1JFBB (C) Kevin Lamarque / Reuters / REUTERS

The administration dropped its defense of the expanded programs, but Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly had said the existing DACA would remain.

According to media reports, the administration does not plan to sign any new DREAM Act legislation. McClatchy News reported that White House legislative affairs director Marc Short said the administration will likely oppose the Dream Act.

Contacted by NBC News for comment, a White House spokeswoman, who declined to comment by name, reiterated Trump's support for immigration enforcement measures. She referred to recent comments on DACA that Trump made to reporters on Air Force One.

Trump told the reporters that DACA is a hard decision. He said he'd like to "do" a comprehensive immigration plan, "but our country and political forces are not ready yet."

Graham used the press conference as a forum to nudge Trump along. He said Trump has the power to tell the Republican base "we have achieved border security" and in a snap his finger to get the Republican party more united on immigration reform than former presidents George W. Bush and Obama could.

What has changed? A man in White House who could take the people who object the most and with a coherent, from the heart speech, change everything, he said.

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Senators Make Another Run at Passing Dream Act for Young Immigrants - NBCNews.com

El Paso Catholic Diocese signs letter asking for immigration reform

Bishop Mark Seitz, with the support of the El Paso Diocese, signed a pastoral letter today citing the need for immigration reform. He hopes those in our community will read his letter before reaching a decision about immigration law.

There should be a bridge and not a big wall between church and state, Seitz said.

For the Catholic Diocese in El Paso, the issue of immigration is not just political, but spiritual.

Begin with the teaching of Jesus. Begin with his call to love the poor. Begin with the call to respect the dignity of every human being and to recognize God is at work, Seitz said.

Some El Pasoans feel there can be positive outcomes when the church crosses the line into politics.

I think if they can do something good for the community, then by all means. If it's allowed and they have the resources to help, then use it for the greater good of the community, Amy Arrieta said.

Others aren't convinced about church activism.

I think that on a lot of issues they can collaborate together, but I think there are some that they have their separate issues that they need to deal with, Alexia Jauregui said.

Rosa Mercado, who was brought to the United States as a child, hopes the bishop's signature will bring about positive change.

I really hope and pray to God every day that this will help a lot of our community, Mercado said.

As part of the letter, Bishop Seitz is starting a new scholarship fund for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients.

Here is a link to the full pastoral letter by Bishop Seitz.

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El Paso Catholic Diocese signs letter asking for immigration reform - KFOX El Paso

Immigration hard-liners on Monday blasted Homeland Security Secretary John Kellys decision to admit 15,000 additional low-skill guest workers under authority granted by Congress earlier this year.

The decision is a win for the business lobby, which had argued that the increase was needed to fill a labor shortage in industries such aslandscaping and tourism. But organizations favoring tighter restriction on immigration argued the companies should be turning to Americans and legal permanent residents.

Its a complete sellout of the people who voted for President [Donald] Trump, said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. One of his core promises was that he was going to protect the most vulnerable Americans.

The H-2B visa program allows foreigners to work temporarily in America in low-skilled, non-agricultural occupations. The one-year visas can be extended for up to three years; visa holders then must return home for at least three months before coming back to the United States.

The law caps the number of visas each year at 66,000, although Congress in previous years had exempted returning workers from the cap. The spending bill passed in May eliminated the requirement that exempt workers must previously have worked under the visa. The Department of Homeland Security received authorization to grant additional visas equal to the year with the highest number of returning workers.

For the first time, the government is adding a requirement that employers demonstrate they would suffer irreparable harm if they cannot hire the guest workers.

"It's not just the number, it's a lot of the qualifications and a lot that goes through to ensure that we are hiring and bringing in the people" that are needed, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday.

The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute released a study Monday indicating there is little evidence in wage data to support the contention of a labor shortage. All but one of the 10 most popular H-2B job categories saw wage growth that was slower than the overall growth from 2004 to 2016. In some cases, wages actually declined.

"Expanding the H-2B program without reforming it to improve protections and increase wages for migrant workers will essentially allow unscrupulous employers to carve out an even larger rights-free zone in the low-wage labor market," study author Daniel Costa said in a prepared statement.

Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA, said in a statement that Kelly's decision threatens to disincentivize companies from working harder to recruit Americans.

"Congress gave Kelly the authority to put around 70,000 more of those jobs out of the reach of Americans; at least Kelly limited the damage to keeping just 15,000 more Americans out of the labor market," he stated. "Nonetheless, this is yet another example of the administration and Congress failing to keep the Trump campaign promise of putting American workers first."

Kelly's decision comes on the heels of a study by the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies that shows the average hourly pay of H-2B visa holders last year was $12.31. Those higher-than-minimum-wage jobs should go to Americans, Beck argued.

H-2B Visas

Source: State Department

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, said 15,000 new workers is a big increase for the rest of the fiscal year. Under ordinary rules, the 66,000-visa limit is divided, with half awarded in the first half of the year and half in the second.

"That's a very substantial increase. It's a 45 percent increase," she said. "This is a program that's already controversial. According to our research, these are workers that for the most part don't have any skills or education. And there are hundreds of thousands of American workers who can do those jobs."

In addition to the impact on the labor market, Vaughan said, it also is a source of illegal immigration. She pointed to statistics from the Department of Homeland Security that 33,000 people who entered through guest worker visas of various types remained in the country illegally after those visas expired.

Vaughan said it also is unclear how the government will determine if businesses will be irreparably harmed.

"We don't know to what extent these are needed workers, as opposed to wanted workers," she said.

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Immigration Hard-Liners Blast Trump Guest Worker Expansion - LifeZette

President Trump caused some head scratching when he told a plane full of journalists en route to France that what Id like to do is a comprehensive immigration plan. But as the Russia investigations drag on, the prospects for health care reform are on hold, and tax reform continues to be a work in progress, this seemingly far-fetched plan may in fact be the most likely opportunity for the president to land a signature legislative victory during his first year in office.

Its not the conventional bet, but this is not a conventional time nor a conventional president and, this is not the first time weve seen him lay some groundwork for such a pursuit.

The travel ban and aggressive enforcement have been the face of the administrations immigration policy thus far, but the facts on the ground have changed of late. The president just announced the number of illegal border crossings has dropped by 75 percent since his inauguration. This may create the opportunity to do more.

Getting to yes on immigration would be a legacy-making move for President Trump his Nixon-goes-to-China moment.

Even before his comments on Air Force One, President Trump had signaled a desire and willingness to go beyond enforcement to fix the broken visa system and address the fact that 11 million people live here without legal status.

A couple weeks ago he told Apple CEO Tim Cook and a gathering of tech leaders that he would put more heartinto the immigration debate and pledged to work on comprehensive immigration reform, a sentiment he had expressed a couple months earlier to a room full of broadcast journalists.

These comments may be far from setting administration policy indeed, Secretary of Homeland Security Kelly just indicated he may not defend Obama-era protection for DREAMers and Politico is reporting that some in the Trump Administration are advocating for cutting legal immigration in half but they do make clear that a broad immigration overhaul is on the presidents mind and he is open to taking on the issue that has stymied every president since Reagan.

Ill be the first to acknowledge reasonable skepticism, but working on this issue from a nonpartisan vantage point, I believe there are three compelling reasons to believe immigration reform is and should be at the top of the agenda:

First, this is how President Trump can fulfill his promises on immigration enforcement. On its own, a bill to build a wall is dead on arrival in the Senate. However, in 2013, a comprehensive bill passed the Senate with votes from 54 Democrats and 14 Republicans. And it passed because instead of focusing solely on enforcement, it overhauled our outdated legal immigration system.

The bill didnt skimp on the border, either. It included $46 billion for security and enforcement, double what President Trump is requesting for his wall now. It mandated hundreds of miles of walls and fences, doubled the number of border patrol agents, and funded aircraft, watchtowers, ground sensors, and mobile surveillance to further monitor the border, while also cracking down on employers who hired undocumented immigrants.

Second, and in contrast to many of the administrations other legislative priorities, overhauling the immigration system already enjoys major bipartisan support in this Congress. Since the 2013 bill, new Republican supporters like Senator Thom Tillis have joined longtime Republican stalwarts like Senators Flake and Hatch in calling for broad immigration reform.

In this Congress, Republicans in both chambers have already introduced four distinct bills that would provide undocumented immigrants with legal status. (One such bill in the House has attracted more than 200 co-sponsors, including 99 Republicans.)

Finally, despite all the political rhetoric, immigration is actually one of the least controversial policy issues out there. Americans dont want open borders and amnesty, but they also dont want to deport 11 million people, the vast majority of whom are not criminals, are working, and are active members of their communities.

Multiple polls show that Americans of all political persuasions, including a clear majority of Trump voters, overwhelmingly support immigration reform that would secure the border, grant legal status to non-criminal undocumented immigrants, and bring the visa system into the 21st century by increasing protections for American workers while also allowing companies to recruit the top talent and necessary workers to fill gaps in the American workforce.

Importantly, popular support for these policies is only growing but to enact them, well need a dealmaker who can succeed where so many others have failed.

To get a deal, President Trump needs to sweeten the pot by adding broadly popular reforms that would grow the American economy. According to estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, such comprehensive reform would cut the deficit by $900 billion over 20 years because of tax revenues from the millions of people who would be able to formally enter the workforce, and would actually result in a 0.5 percent wage increase for all American workers. It would go a long way toward supporting the administrations economic growth and job creation goals the presidents own chair of the Council of Economic Advisers has written extensively on the large gains immigration reform can bring while also creating the budget room for other major priorities.

Of course, the loudest voices might insist on an enforcement-only approach, and decry anything they suspect to be amnesty. But balanced against such a challenge will be the enormous political, historical, and economic upside of passing comprehensive immigration reform. Getting to yes on immigration would be a legacy-making move for President Trump his Nixon-goes-to-China moment, one that would put his deal-making skills on a level with the last president to sign immigration reform, Ronald Reagan.

After decades of gridlock on immigration, political necessity and popular demand seem to have aligned. Now its in the power of the Dealmaker in Chief to make immigration reform a reality.

Jeremy Robbins is the executive director of New American Economy.

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Immigration may be the biggest -- and least expected -- legislative victory this year - Fox News