Over 100 Catholic bishops, nuns, priests, and parishioners joined a procession across the US-Mexico border on Friday evening, calling for the humane treatment of illegal immigrants. The procession, which began in Nogales, Arizona, and continued into its sister city in the Mexican state of Sonora, was planned to coincide with commemorations of America’s 250th anniversary.

Catholic Leaders Criticize Immigration Policies

Catholic leaders in the United States, along with Pope Leo, have criticized Trump-era immigration policies, including mass deportations, conditions in detention facilities, and enforcement raids. The Supreme Court recently ruled that the Trump administration could turn away asylum seekers at the border and strip deportation protections from hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants.

Bishop Mark Seitz, who oversees the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, has been monitoring the situation at the Camp East Montana detention center in nearby Fort Bliss. He reported that religious chaplains have sometimes been denied access to detainees, and Catholic priests have only been allowed to celebrate one Mass a week, on Sundays, with room for about 100 faithful, a fraction of the more than 1,000 detainees.

The procession of the faithful was waved across the border into Mexico by federal officials, where they continued praying the rosary, following a banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe. People walking past smiled at the procession as it made its way to the Church of the Immaculate Conception, where it was welcomed by the Nogales bishop.

Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.