SAN DIEGO (CN) - After attending a few hours of immigration court hearings on Friday morning, newly appointed bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, Michael Pham, said that the Trump administration needs to treat migrants more justly, kindly and "Christ-like."
"I ask that our administration, the government, treat people with kindness, compassion, dignity, respect. They are human beings. We live on a land where the majority of us were immigrants at one time or another," Pham said.
Pham, who was born in Vietnam, said that he experienced raids and government repression in his homeland and what the federal government in the U.S. is doing is both sad and harmful to American democracy.
After administering Mass at a downtown church, Pham lead a group of local Catholic leaders and Imam Taha Hassane of the Islamic Center of San Diego to observe proceedings at the city's federal immigration court, escort people going to their court hearings and to "stand in solidarity with migrants who are making their court appearances" on World Refugee Day, according to a press release.
The immigration court in San Diego, like many around the country, have seen an increase in arrests of migrants and refugees by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as they've entered or tried to leave court hearings as part of an initiative by the Trump administration to expedite deportations by dismissing migrant and refugee cases and then arresting them at courthouses.
Last week, Sayed Naser, an Afghan man who worked as a translator for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, was detained by masked ICE agents after he attended a mandatory immigration court hearing.
The delegation of religious leaders did not witness anyone being detained, but their presence in the court kept both the judge and government attorneys on their best behavior, an attorney told Father Scott Santarosa, a pastor at Our Lady of Guadalupe in San Diego.
"Whenever they can, I think they are taking people," Santarosa said about ICE. "But in this case, our presence made a difference."
The Catholic Church, the Diocese of San Diego or individual parishes have never accompanied migrants and refugees to court, but because there's now a need for it, they'll now consider starting a new "ministry" to continue doing it, Santarosa said.
"A month ago, five months ago, this wasn't a need, and now it is, and if the presence of church people can make a difference, then okay," he said.
Tana Petruzzelli, a volunteer with Detention Resistance, a human rights group who regularly accompany migrants and refugees to their court hearings, said she noticed a difference in how the court and law enforcement acted when the religious delegation was in the building.
"They bailed as soon as they showed up," Petruzzelli said, referring to ICE officers. In a video shot by Petruzzelli and shown to Courthouse News, six or so ICE agents, all completely masked with black face coverings, can be seen gathering toward an elevator.
When there are more observers and more lawyers in the building, law enforcement and judges are more likely to be on their best behavior, she said. She hopes the Bishop will return to observe the court, she added.
"We've yet to go a single day without a detention. They have their quotas," Petruzzelli said about ICE.
When Courthouse News and other media tried to enter the federal building that houses the courthouse, a private security guard working inside the building threatened to not let people into the building, including those waiting to enter and attend their court hearings, if the assembled media didn't leave the area. Eventually, the media and others were allowed to enter the building.
"They're more concerned with optics than human rights," Petruzzelli said about law enforcement.
Source: Courthouse News Service
