Janice R. Andrews
Some important U.S. government organisations have been sued by the Catholic Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey. These include the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The case is against recent changes to the way the government processes green cards for religious workers. These changes make it harder for thousands of clergy members who were born outside of the United States to continue their service here. This is the first time that a Catholic bishop has taken legal action in this way. It shows how worried religious groups are about losing important people of their communities.
This is the background of the problem:
Religious groups all over the U.S. have been asking Congress and the Biden administration to change how religious workers get green cards for more than a year. These changes have caused long delays that put the residency status of many church members who were born outside of the United States at risk. Five priests from the Diocese of Paterson will lose their legal standing as soon as spring of 2019. They say that the change in procedure “will cause severe and substantial disruption to the lives and religious freedoms” of the priests and the hundreds of thousands of Catholics they serve.
“Our priests feel we’re doing the best we can,” said Bishop Kevin Sweeney, who is in charge of a diocese in New Jersey with 107 churches and about 400,000 Catholics. There is still concern, though, that the new policy could force these religious workers to leave the country, which would have a big effect on their groups.
What Does It Mean for Religious Groups?
There have been effects on religious groups in the U.S. because of the changes in immigration policy, especially those that depend on preachers from other countries. Bishop Mark Seitz, who leads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ group on migration, was upset about the delays and said the situation was “not sustainable.” Seitz’s diocese in El Paso, Texas, might lose priests whose applications for permanent residency don’t get accepted before their cards run out. The way things stand now, these priests would have to leave the U.S. for at least a year, which would make it very hard for them to serve their churches.
“One leads a big parish that’s growing.” Is it now my job to send him away for a year, or “put him on ice,” and find a way to give Masses? Seitz said this to emphasise how hard it is to make things work now that visa rules have changed.
More Effects on Religion and Culture
The problem isn’t just with Catholics. Buddhism, Islam, and many Christian groups depend on pastors who were born outside of the United States to serve their growing non-English-speaking congregations or to give them specialised training. A lot of the time, these religious workers come to the U.S. on short-term R-1 visas that let them work for up to five years. In the past, this time frame was enough for religious groups to decide if these workers were a good fit and apply for their permanent residency under the EB-4 visa category.
But new changes have made this process more difficult. In March 2023, the State Department changed the way it processes green cards so that children from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador who have been ignored or abused were put in the same group as religious workers. This move has caused a backlog that has been going on for more than 3.5 years and could last for another 10 to 15 years. For many church workers, the wait for green cards is too long to bear.
“This can’t go on,” said Lance Conklin, co-chair of the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s group for religious workers. Basically, he says, the case shows how many people feel about the policy changes.
Legal and Legislative Efforts to Solve the Problem
Along with other groups, the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have been pushing for both legal and administrative answers to these problems. Long-term fixes may be hard to get through Congress because immigration reform is a touchy issue, but there are easier administration changes that could help right away.
Some people want to let applicants change ministry jobs without losing their spot in the green card queue. For example, they could go from being an assistant pastor to a senior pastor. One more idea is to shorten the time pastors must be outside of the U.S. after their visa runs out before they can apply for a new one. The required time frame is currently 12 months, but many people think it could be cut by a lot.
Bishop Seitz said, “We could deal with a month.” This shows that many religious groups are ready to be flexible as long as they can get some relief.
More Serious Effects and the Need to Act
There are already real effects of the delays and legal uncertainty in getting a green card for church workers. A nun who works as a school helper in the Archdiocese of Chicago will have to leave the country soon because her visa is about to run out. Olga Rojas, who is the archdiocese’s chief attorney for immigration, said that the situation was terrible for everyone involved. She said, “They want to stay and finish their work.” She also said that many church workers had to leave the country already.
The effects go beyond ministry and include health care, schooling, services for kids, and other social services that religious workers often provide. “It’s beyond ministry,” Miguel Naranjo, head of Religious Immigration Services for Catholic Legal Immigration Network, stressed, highlighting the important role these workers play in their communities.
Conclusion
As the case brought by the Diocese of Paterson goes forward, it shows how badly we need to fix the current immigration policy problem that affects religious workers. The case is a reminder of how important pastors from other countries are to American religious life and how long delays in the system can have on the social and spiritual life of groups all across the country.
Many priests, nuns, and religious workers are running out of time. There is still hope that the lawsuit and ongoing advocacy efforts will get the U.S. government to make the changes that are needed so that these important people can keep working without worrying about having to leave the country.
