{"id":93044,"date":"2025-12-22T22:57:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T22:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/93044\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T22:57:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T22:57:11","slug":"florida-bishops-call-for-immigration-enforcement-moratorium-over-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/93044\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida bishops call for immigration enforcement moratorium over Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n \"Tessa
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

By Tessa Gervasini<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 22, 2025 \/
\n 16:52 pm<\/p>\n

The bishops of the Catholic Church in Florida have asked President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis \u201cto pause immigration enforcement activities during the Christmas holidays.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe request that the government pause apprehension and roundup activities during the Christmas season. Such a pause would show a decent regard for the humanity of these families,\u201d the bishops said in a Dec. 22 statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t be the Grinch that stole Christmas,\u201d Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami said<\/a> in a news conference. \u201cGive people these two weeks to be with their families without fear of being arrested or taken into custody and ending up at Alligator Alcatraz or at Krome or other places to await deportation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with Wenski, other prelates including Bishop Gerald Barbarito of Palm Beach, Bishop Frank Dewane of Venice, Bishop John Noonan of Orlando, Bishop Gregory Parkes of St. Petersburg, Bishop William Wack of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Bishop Erik Pohlmeier of St. Augustine, and Auxiliary Bishop Enrique Delgado of Miami joined in issuing the statement.<\/p>\n

Pausing enforcement during the holy season \u201ccan lower the temperature within our partisan divisions, ease the fear and anxiety present in many of our immigrant and even nonimmigrant families and allow all of us to celebrate with greater joy the advent of the Prince of Peace,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow is not the time to be callous toward the suffering caused by immigration enforcement. Our nation is richly blessed. Despite challenges confronting our nation, we Americans enjoy a peace and prosperity that is the envy of the world, made possible by our special constitutional order which protects our liberties.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Removing dangerous criminals has been accomplished to a great degree\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThe border has been secured\u201d and \u201cthe initial work of identifying and removing dangerous criminals has been accomplished to a great degree,\u201d the bishops said. \u201cOver half a million people have been deported this year, and nearly 2 million more have voluntarily self-deported.\u201d<\/p>\n

The arrest operations \u201cinevitably sweep up numbers of people who are not criminals but just here to work,\u201d and some have \u201clegal authorization to be here,\u201d the bishops wrote. \u201cEventually these cases may be resolved, but this takes many months causing great sorrow for their families. A growing majority of Americans say the harsh enforcement policies are going too far.\u201d<\/p>\n

The call follows a December report<\/a> released by human rights organization Amnesty International that detailed \u201ccruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment\u201d at Florida detention centers Alligator Alcatraz and the Krome North Service Processing Center.<\/p>\n

According to the organization, the report reveals human rights violations that, \u201cin some cases amount to torture \u2026 within an increasingly hostile anti-immigrant climate in Florida under Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose administration has intensified criminalization and mass detention of migrants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile enforcement will always be part of any immigration policy, such enforcement can be carried out in a way that recognizes due process as well as the humanity and dignity of all affected including those carrying out those policies,\u201d the bishops wrote.<\/p>\n

Neither the White House nor the office of DeSantis responded to CNA for comment prior to publication.<\/p>\n


\n \"Tessa
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Tessa Gervasini is a staff reporter for Catholic News Agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Tessa Gervasini Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 22, 2025 \/ 16:52 pm The bishops of the Catholic Church…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49720,26382,28,49719,30,29,8236,28911,628],"class_list":["post-93044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-archdiocese-of-miami","tag-catholic-news","tag-florida","tag-florida-catholic-bishops","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-illegal-immigration","tag-immigration-policy","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}