WASHINGTON - On December 2, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), also known as “Remain in Mexico,” would restart the week of December 6. This announcement follows an agreement reached between the United States and Mexico to reimplement the program with certain modifications. In October, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued a memorandum to terminate MPP, following a federal district court ruling vacating his earlier termination of the program. The federal government’s appeal of that ruling is pending. In the meantime, DHS is complying with the court’s order to reinstate MPP. Its revival comes as the Biden Administration continues to use Title 42 of the U.S. Code to expel asylum seekers and other vulnerable migrants, bypassing normal immigration proceedings and skirting due process protections.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has opposed MPP since it was first introduced in 2019. Reaffirming that position, Bishop Mario E. Dorsonville, auxiliary bishop of Washington and chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration, issued the following statement:

WASHINGTON – In the midst of Advent as the Catholic Church prepares for the birth of our Lord at Christmas, the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on National Collections expressed his gratitude for the generosity of the Catholic faithful who, even throughout pandemic hardships, have given generously to the national collections that strengthen faith communities and help those in need.

“Catholics who have given to these national collections, even perhaps when they were themselves in need, have shown our world the loving face of Jesus,” said Bishop James S. Wall of Gallup, chairman of the USCCB Committee on National Collections. “To the faithful who have prayerfully supported the good work of the Church by giving to these national collections, I wish to extend on behalf of the U.S. bishops my heartfelt gratitude. Your gifts are transforming the lives of struggling communities and hurting people through practical assistance to the poor and by helping to spread the gospel of Jesus in places where the Church is new, small, or challenged.”

WASHINGTON – Two bishop chairmen on behalf of their committees of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have cosigned a coalition letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) and Ranking Member Richard Burr (R-NC) with other faith groups raising urgent concerns that the Build Back Better Act’s (BBBA) child care and universal pre-kindergarten programs would exclude faith-based providers.

“Expanding affordable child care and pre-kindergarten is a worthy goal to help working families. However, the current child care and universal pre-kindergarten (UPK) provisions in the Build Back Better Act will suppress, if not exclude, the participation of many faith-based providers,” wrote Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, chairman of the Committee for Religious Liberty, and Bishop Thomas Daly of Spokane, chairman of the Committee on Catholic Education, together with numerous organizations representing denominations, schools, and charities.