Diocesan Resources
MRS brochure: We Are Strangers No Longer (2012)
We Are Strangers No Longer: Reflections on the Tenth Anniversary of the Pastoral Letter on Migration of the Catholic Bishops of Mexico and the United States produced by the USCCB Migration and Refugee Services
In 2003, the bishops of the United States and Mexico issued a joint pastoral letter, Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope, that presented a Catholic framework for responding to the ongoing migration phenomenon in their respective countries. In doing so, the bishops offered pastoral guidance to Catholics who encounter and engage migrants living and working in their communities. The letter also suggested systematic reforms to U.S. immigration policy and presented an alternative to the existing immigration policy paradigm.
In the two decades surrounding the pastoral letter’s publication, the United States has promoted an enforcement-only approach to unauthorized immigration. Between fiscal years 2004 and 2009, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) budget increased 82 percent, from $6 billion to $10.1 billion. Along with this substantial budgetary increase, CBP saw a 35 percent increase in the number of border patrol agents and support persons during that same period. These increases in border enforcement build on significant expansions in these same areas during the previous decade.
In contrast to an enforcement-only approach, the bishops of the United States support passage of a comprehensive immigration reform package.