Long Island Catholic group aims to enlist parishes to protect immigrants

A group of Long Island Catholics, frustrated at what they say has been inaction by the Diocese of Rockville Centre amid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, kicked off an effort Tuesday to persuade local parishes to defend the rights of immigrants.

The group, called Catholics Welcome Immigrants, includes several priests, some of whom attended a news conference Tuesday in Huntington Station where organizers provided details about the effort and decried Trump's deportation campaign, including the arrest of at least 3,000 Long Islanders. They also accused the federal government of violating Catholic teachings to welcome the stranger and assist the weak.

"These inhumane and immoral policies fly in the face not only of American values but also what we believe as Roman Catholics," Richard Koubek, one of the leaders of the group, said at St. Hugh of Lincoln Roman Catholic Church in Huntington Station, within walking distance of several restaurants, bars and retail shops catering to its heavily Hispanic congregation.

With the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States approaching, "President Washington’s hopes for a nation that welcomes immigrants is threatened in a way that we have not seen since 1942 when the United States government rounded up and placed Japanese immigrants and their children in internment camps," Koubek said.

The group hopes to start training lay leaders in August in how to plan prayer services focused on immigrants, how to publish bulletin inserts on the topic, how to reach out to new immigrants and advocate for "just" government policies. They aim to begin implementing their program in parishes in September.

Catholics Welcome Immigrants hopes to have pastors preach about the deportation campaign from the altar and publicize letters by bishops in the United States denouncing the ongoing effort.

They also want parishioners to form discussion groups on immigration that could lead to actions such as contacting their congressional representatives. To guide the effort, Catholics Welcome Immigrants has developed a "tool kit" that includes everything from ideas for homilies to prayers for immigrants.

Koubek said that initially, he anticipates meeting "indifference" from many of the diocese’s 132 parishes, but if 10 participate at the outset, that will be a good start.

Trump contends the deportation effort, led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is aimed at rounding up "the worst of the worst" among people in the country illegally. An email to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security seeking comment Tuesday was not immediately returned.

Newsday reported in May that Tom Homan, Trump's border czar, had vowed to "flood" New York with ICE agents if the state moved ahead with plans to prohibit local agreements with federal efforts to detain migrants.

Leaders on Tuesday said they formed the group because they believed Bishop John Barres, who heads the Diocese of Rockville Centre, was not taking an active role on the immigration issue, even though other American bishops and Pope Leo have been speaking out on it.

When asked for comment Tuesday by Newsday, the diocese referred to its previous statements noting Barres' call for comprehensive immigration reform and his meetings and talks about immigrants, including in homilies.

The diocese also noted Catholic Charities' extensive lengths to help immigrants with food, housing, job training and legal services.

Barres helped draft a statement by the New York State Catholic Conference that said immigration enforcement should be done in "a humane manner that does not target the hard-working and law-abiding; that does not permit the wanton and unnecessary separation of families; and that does not rely on campaigns of fear that cripple whole communities."

Speakers at the news conference Tuesday pointed to studies showing most of those arrested have no criminal record.

"Catholics must meet this moment by acknowledging that these government policies do not reflect the gospel demand to love our neighbor and recognize the image of God in every person," said one speaker, Ed Kubik, a resident of Lynbrook who belongs to Pax Christi, a Catholic peace group.

"They are contrary to the Catholic principles we have been taught since childhood," Kubik said.

The Rev. Robert Smith, pastor of St. Hugh, said the century-old parish has a long history of welcoming immigrants from Italy, Ireland, Germany, Poland and more recently Central American nations such as El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

"The church is convinced that giving welcome to immigrant peoples, often if not always, enriches, enhances, benefits the countries of their destination," Smith said. "The arrival of these brothers and sisters from afar has been a blessing, a blessing beyond measure to this community.

"How deeply disheartening the fact that in so many cases immigrant people are being told that they are not welcome," he said.