Immigration is a ‘Gospel issue’ before a ‘political issue,’ U.S. bishop says

Vatican City, Oct 9, 2025 /
13:25 pm

Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, said immigration is a “Gospel issue” before it is a “political issue” in the United States. 

In an exclusive interview with EWTN News reporter Valentina Di Donato, Seitz said the Church has a responsibility to reaffirm Catholic social teaching regarding the preferential option for the poor. 

“It’s always the role of the bishop to speak the Gospel, to reflect on that Gospel and its implications for our daily lives,” the prelate told EWTN News. 

“We have a task to form people based on that teaching of love and mercy and compassion that applies not just in exceptional cases, not just to certain people, but in a special way to the poor and the vulnerable, and that includes immigrants,” he said. 

Speaking about the “inalienable rights” every person is endowed with by God, the bishop said the rights of immigrants should not only be a concern of the Church but should also be “respected in law.”

“While we are not politicians — it’s not our task to develop rules and laws — we are responsible to help form consciences and bring people back to the basic underlying principles, which, by the way, are principles upon which our country was built,” he said.

According to the bishop, U.S. asylum law is not being respected “right now,” as several migrant families living in the El Paso Diocese, located near the U.S.-Mexico border, no longer feel protected and fear deportation. 

“We should practice that [respect for] human dignity when we are dealing with a person who simply fled here because they had no other option,” he told EWTN News.

Having ministered to families who have felt threatened by criminal drug gangs, Seitz said it is unjust to deny asylum or security for those seeking protection outside of their countries of origin, especially when the gangs’ activities are “supported by our drug addiction in the United States.” 

Earlier this week, Pope Leo XIV met with Seitz, El Paso Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Celino, and Dylan Corbett of Hope Border Institute in a private Oct. 8 meeting at the Vatican. 

During the meeting, the bishop shared a four-minute video and handwritten letters from migrant families expressing their faith as well as their fears about the future.

“I said, ‘Holy Father, we’re so happy to stand with you,’” Seitz said, recalling the encounter. “Later on in the meeting [the pope] came back to that and he said, ‘In matters of injustice, the Church has to speak and, in that, I stand with you.’”