Texas bishop slams Biden’s border change: “Deeply disturbed”

A Catholic bishop in El Paso, Texas, who has been vocal about Governor Greg Abbott‘s immigration policies is criticizing President Joe Biden‘s new executive order that impacts asylum seekers.

Bishop Mark Seitz said Wednesday, on behalf of the Committee on Migration for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), that he was “deeply disturbed” by the order reducing asylum claims between ports of entry in response to heightened levels of illegal immigration and an overwhelmed federal system. He said it violates “fundamental humanitarian protections and U.S. asylum law.”

Newsweek reached out to the USCCB via email for further comment.

Biden’s order announced Tuesday suspends asylum processing between ports of entry when numbers exceed 2,500 per day, reopening when daily numbers fall below 1,500. The action, which does not include undocumented children or those who utilize the CBP One app, is enforced under a provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act.

As the president aims to mitigate illegal migrant flows that have plagued his administration since he took office, with numbers of southern border encounters increasing annually, he continues to receive scrutiny from Republicans —including former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee—who claim he hasn’t gone far enough to secure the border. House Speaker Mike Johnson referred to the order as “window dressing.”

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and others like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have expressed dismay with the decision, with the latter saying it intends to legally challenge the order, arguing it mimics Trump-era policies that negatively impacted efforts of migrants escaping arduous native situations.

Seitz said that not just the lives of migrants but those of Border Patrol agents will be at higher risk under the new protocols.

“There is a crisis of conscience at the U.S.-Mexico border,” he said. “When vulnerable families seeking safety and the means for a dignified life are labeled ‘invaders’ or ‘illegals’—terms that mask their humanity—we have strayed from the path of righteousness, succumbed to our fear of the ‘other,’ and forsaken the values upon which our nation was founded.

“This sentiment in no way violates a country’s right and responsibility to maintain its borders and regulate immigration in furtherance of the common good. Nevertheless, as defenders of human life and dignity, which we hold sacred and inviolable from the moment of conception, we cannot accept unjust conditions on the right to migrate for those fleeing life-threatening situations.”

Seitz in the past has been critical of Abbott, a Republican, for how he has approached illegal immigration, admonishing the governor’s Operation Lone Star program that has involved Texas National Guard soldiers placing concertina wire along the Rio Grande to prevent surges outside of ports of entry.

In March, Seitz called Texas Republicans’ efforts “transparently political” and implored people of faith “to resist these racist projects.”

Abbott, who earlier this year announced the construction of a military camp in the heavily traversed Eagle Pass area, and other Texas officials await the legal green light to enforce their own statewide immigration laws akin to those of the federal government.

State Senate Bill 4 (S.B. 4), which was approved last year in an 88-4 vote, was allowed to proceed by the U.S. Supreme Court but afterward was put on hold by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

“What this executive order does, does not in any way address the border crisis he created and will in no way reduce illegal immigration into the United States,” Abbott said Wednesday on Fox News‘ America Reports. “To the contrary, what this order does is actually attract more people to cross the border illegally to try to be a part of that asylum process, so this actually hurts, it doesn’t help, the illegal immigration situation in the United States.”