“Unless there is a change to current practice, our community is slowly being strangled,” said the Rev. Aaron Wessman, vicar general and director of formation for the Glenmary Home Missioners, a small Catholic order ministering in rural America.

Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez was one of several community leaders who joined to open the Family Assistance Program, aiding those affected by recent ICE raids.

On Friday, Pope Leo XIV issued a statement on the theme "Migrants, missionaries of hope."

The archbishop assured migrants in a pastoral letter that “the Church is a community of faith, and the divine person of Christ, who was forced to flee his homeland as a child, holds you in his compassionate arms.”

Archbishop Wenski of Miami and some 25 Knights of Columbus saddled up their motorcycles to pray a rosary at the entrance of Alligator Alcatraz, the migrant detention center recently opened in the Florida Everglades.

The U.S. church will have to contend with “deportation on steroids“ as the Trump administration adds vast new capacity to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.