In a pastoral letter released on March 15, Bishop Mark Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso implored immigration enforcement agents not to follow orders that violated their consciences. “No one has to obey an illegal order,” he wrote, asking those executing the mass deportation campaign at the behest of the Trump administration to “carefully discern the moral requirements of the Gospel at this moment w...
The strongest version of this narrative centers on moral leadership in the face of systemic injustice. Bishop Seitz’s pastoral letter is a rare and explicit condemnation of U.S. immigration policy from within the Catholic hierarchy, framing deportations not just as a political issue but as a violation of Gospel values. By directly appealing to the consciences of enforcement agents, he shifts the discourse from abstract policy debates to personal moral responsibility. The letter’s biblical framin...