In response to the federal government’s upscaling of immigration enforcement funding, Bishop Brendan J. Cahill, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Migration, urged the Administration and Congress to pursue a more just approach. The Administration currently plans to double federal immigration detention capacity, spending an estimated $38.3 billion from last year’s reconciliation bill to implement a new detention model by the end of Fiscal Year 2026.
The increase amounts to nearly fifty times the annual budget for the entire immigration court system and almost five times the funding provided this year to operate the federal prison system. The plan partly entails opening eight “mega‑centers,” each of which would be capable of detaining 7,000 to 10,000 people. Aside from the internment camps used to incarcerate Japanese Americans in the 1940s, such facilities have no precedent in American history.
“The thought of holding thousands of families in massive warehouses should challenge the conscience of every American,” Bishop Cahill said. “Whatever their immigration status, these are human beings created in the image and likeness of God, and this is a moral inflection point for our country. We implore the Administration and Congress to… instead pursue a more just approach to immigration enforcement that truly respects human dignity, the sanctity of families, and religious liberty.”
Bishop Cahill’s full statement can be found here at the USCCB website.