Following at least nine deaths during ICE enforcement operations, two bishops call for accountability, transparency, and respect for human dignity.
Two senior US Catholic bishops issued a pastoral reflection on Monday calling for accountability and transparency in immigration enforcement, following a series of deaths during ICE operations across the country that have raised urgent questions about the use of lethal force.
Bishop Daniel E. Garcia, chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion of Racial Justice and Reconciliation, and Bishop Brendan J. Cahill, chairman of the Committee on Migration, issued the statement on July 20, saying that “acts that diminish or disregard the dignity of any person or group of people should never be normalized in our society.”
The statement comes after at least nine people have died during immigration enforcement operations since the new strategy taken up by the current administration. The most recent was a 26-year-old Colombian man shot and killed by an ICE agent in Biddeford, Maine, on July 13. The shooting came less than a week after Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national whose family said he was working toward legal status, was fatally shot by an immigration agent in Houston, Texas, on July 7. His family said he was on his way to a construction job. Federal authorities said he had attempted to ram his vehicle into an agent. The government’s account has been repeatedly challenged by witnesses, relatives, and in some cases by video evidence.
Among higher-profile earlier cases were the deaths of US citizens Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, and Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, both shot during immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota in January.
Not just shootings
The deaths are not limited to shooting incidents. At least 30 people died in ICE custody in 2025 — the highest figure in two decades — and 2026 is already on track to surpass that record.
The bishops were careful to draw a distinction between their pastoral concerns and questions of civil law, but urged the rejection of dehumanization on all sides. “The dehumanization of immigrants, regardless of their legal status, is one such example of this,” they wrote; “the vilification of law enforcement officers is yet another.” They affirmed “the legitimate role of civil authorities to implement the law in a humane manner and with respect for fundamental human rights, including the rights to life and due process,” while insisting that “the power of the state must always be exercised within the limits of the moral law.”
The statement also addressed racial profiling directly, calling it a violation of God-given dignity that “inflicts profound harm on individuals, families, and communities by fostering fear, eroding trust, and increasing the risk of unjust and even tragic outcomes.”
The reflection drew on a statement issued by the full body of US bishops last November in Baltimore, in which the bishops expressed disturbance at “a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement” among their people.
“As Catholics,” Monday's statement said, “we believe that all persons are created in the image and likeness of God and, therefore, grieve all situations where human life is brought to an unnatural end. This is a core teaching of our faith and one we can never grow weary of proclaiming as disciples of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The bishops called for “meaningful reforms” to the immigration system and asked for prayers for those killed, for their families, and “for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric, racial prejudice, and violence.” They concluded by invoking the intercession of Mary, “who is the model of perfect faith in times of grief, hardship, and uncertainty.”
