{"id":2970,"date":"2008-08-21T11:02:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-21T11:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/rhode-island-bishop-stop-the-raids.html"},"modified":"2008-08-21T11:02:00","modified_gmt":"2008-08-21T11:02:00","slug":"rhode-island-bishop-stop-the-raids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/rhode-island-bishop-stop-the-raids.html","title":{"rendered":"Rhode Island bishop: stop the raids"},"content":{"rendered":"

The bishop overseeing America’s smallest state is making some big news<\/a> this morning. <\/p>\n

This crackled over the wire a short time ago:<\/p>\n

Rhode Island’s Roman Catholic bishop is calling on U.S. authorities to halt mass immigration raids and says agents who refuse to participate in such raids on moral grounds deserve to be treated as conscientious objectors.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin asked for a blanket moratorium on immigration raids in Rhode Island until the nation adopts comprehensive immigration reform. Tobin made the requests in a letter sent Tuesday to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Boston.<\/p>\n

The letter was released Thursday to The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Tobin’s action comes during a heated debate over illegal immigration in heavily Catholic Rhode Island. Authorities recently raided six courthouses looking for illegal immigrant maintenance workers and Gov. Don Carcieri, himself a Catholic, signed an order requiring state police and prison officials to identify illegal immigrants for possible deportation.<\/p>\n

“We believe that raids on the immigrant community are unjust, unnecessary, and counterproductive,” the bishop’s letter says. It urges individual federal agents to consider the morality of their actions and refuse to participate if their conscience dictates.<\/p>\n

In such cases, he said, “we urge the Federal Government to fully respect the well-founded principles of conscientious objection.”<\/p>\n

ICE spokeswoman Paula Grenier said the agency would not comment on Tobin’s requests. She did not know if any ICE agents have asked to be excused from participating in raids on moral grounds.<\/p>\n

“As an agency, ICE is responsible for enforcing the immigration and customs laws enacted by Congress,” she said. “That’s our job. We’re fulfilling that mandate.”<\/p>\n

Roman Catholic and other religious leaders have repeatedly criticized immigration raids that target migrant workers, rather than illegal immigrants who commit crimes.<\/p>\n

Tobin’s request is unusual because it suggests the raids are forcing immigration agents to choose between their jobs and their religious faith.<\/p>\n

Tobin is bishop of the Diocese of Providence, which covers the entire state. Some 60 percent of Rhode Island residents call themselves Roman Catholic, a higher percentage than any other state.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has called U.S. immigration policies “morally unacceptable,” saying they keep families divided and encourage the exploitation of migrants.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The bishop overseeing America’s smallest state is making some big news this morning. This crackled over the wire a short time ago: Rhode Island’s Roman Catholic bishop is calling on U.S. authorities to halt mass immigration raids and says agents who refuse to participate in such raids on moral grounds deserve to be treated as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ripped-from-the-headlines","category-the-pope-and-bishops"],"yoast_head":"\nRhode Island bishop: stop the raids - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/rhode-island-bishop-stop-the-raids.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rhode Island bishop: stop the raids - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The bishop overseeing America’s smallest state is making some big news this morning. 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2970\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}