I worry at times, writing this column, that I may sound like a broken record, harping on immigration issues and the Catholic Church’s teachings on the subject ad nauseum. But America’s Catholic bishops clearly have no such qualms; indeed, it seems as though their excellencies issue some new (often whiny) immigration missive every other week, horrifically misrepresenting the Church’s age-old teachings on matters of national sovereignty, borders, and the moral responsibilities that immigrants and refugees owe to their host nations. Well, last week was one of those weeks. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) on Friday published a statement authored by Bishop Brendan Cahill of the Diocese of Victoria in Texas, complaining of President Donald Trump’s plan to increase detention housing capacity for arrested illegal aliens. “These plans are deeply troubling,” the bishop wrote, making veiled references to the mass internment of Japanese nationals during World War II. “The thought of holding thousands of families in massive warehouses should challenge the conscience of every American. Whatever their immigration status, these are human beings created in the image and likeness of God, and this is a moral inflection point for our country,” he continued. “We implore the Administration and Congress to lead with right reason, abandon this misuse of taxpayer funds, and to instead pursue a more just approach to immigration enforcement that truly respects human dignity, the sanctity of families, and religious liberty.” What might a more just approach be in Cahill’s mind, I wonder? What might be a better use of those taxpayer funds? Perhaps funneling tens of millions of dollars per annum into the USCCB’s coffers (see here, here, and here) while the bishops and their cronies distribute cellphones and pre-loaded debit cards to newly-arrived illegal aliens at the southern border, before shuttling the unvetted arrivals further into the U.S. How many young American women could have been spared rape and brutal murder had the USCCB refused the thirty pieces of silver the previous administration offered? Mass detention centers of the sort that Cahill is moaning about could be rendered unnecessary if the deportation process were to be streamlined. Holding tens of thousands of foreigners at a time would not be necessary if they were to be quickly processed through the immigration courts, ushered onto planes, and shuttled back to wherever they came from in the first place. Instead, a veritable army of NGOs has besieged the nation’s Article III courts with lawsuits, which are almost invariably decided by left-wing activists put on the bench by Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Injunctions and restraining orders are issued and murderers, rapists, child molesters, human traffickers, wife-beaters, drug dealers, gang members, and fraudsters are kept from being shipped back to their landfills of origin, necessitating further detainment and, thus, the Trump administration’s rapid expansion of detention capacity. However, those refugees have an obligation, the Church further instructs, to respect the laws and customs of the nation offering refuge and to assimilate. While I am unaware of any such lawsuit formally joined by the USCCB or its “Catholic” satellite organizations, the bishops have been active participants in the wave of anti-immigration enforcement activism presently afflicting a portion of the nation’s population. (For a few examples, please see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here) When activist provocateur Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed in Minneapolis last month after striking an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent with her SUV, Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis was quick to issue a statement, while the Jesuits’ America magazine published an essay implicitly accusing ICE of racist practices and policies. When an illegal alien assaulted 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley, attempted to rape her, and bashed her head in with a rock, no bishops issued any statements. When 37-year-old mother-of-five Rachel Morin was raped, beaten to death, and then raped again, no bishops issued any statements. When two illegal alien adult men sexually assaulted and strangled 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray to death — you guessed it, silence from the U.S. bishops. The Catholic Church has very clear teachings on the subjects of immigration, treatment of refugees, borders, national sovereignty, and cultural heritage and homogeneity. Nations who can afford to, the Church instructs, ought to welcome refugees, those who are fleeing genuine persecution, war, or severe disasters. Climate change, an impoverished economy, or being hunted down by a rival gang do not really qualify as life-threatening humanitarian crises, sorry. However, those refugees have an obligation, the Church further instructs, to respect the laws and customs of the nation offering refuge and to assimilate, as far as is reasonable. This commandment has been broken time and time again by those who wantonly trample the first American law that they encounter and continue — whether for months, years, or even decades — to evade law enforcement, unlawfully take jobs and houses that right-wise belong to their American hosts, and even prey upon welfare programs paid for by American taxpayers and meant to support Americans. The bishops mention none of these responsibilities. Instead, they treat the United States like a free hotel and complain when the government spends millions of dollars providing beds for criminals. Meanwhile, they and their allies denounce just American laws and, in their efforts to prevent the deportation of illegal immigrants, help create the very demand for expanded detention centers they deplore. When it comes to immigration policy, the U.S. bishops might do well to read Cardinal Robert Sarah’s The Power of Silence. READ MORE from S.A. 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