STEVE INSKEEP, BYLINE: Let's talk through this year in immigration enforcement with Mark Seitz, who is the Catholic Bishop of El Paso, Texas, which of course is on the border with Mexico. Bishop Seitz, welcome to the program.
MARK SEITZ: Hello. It's good to be with you.
INSKEEP: In recent years, there was a huge influx of people across the border, including in El Paso. That seems to have dried up. And the administration is working very hard to move people the other way.
SEITZ: That's right.
INSKEEP: What have you thought about this year as you've watched that?
SEITZ: Oh, it's just a great source of sadness for me because I've had the opportunity to know so many and know their stories, know their suffering. I know that what they're doing is exactly what any of us would've done to protect my family, to provide for their needs and protect them from danger. They're human stories just like our own, so I can certainly identify.
INSKEEP: What obligations, if any, do you feel toward new arrivals here?
SEITZ: Well, I think certainly my faith says that I need to welcome the stranger. I need to be concerned about the poor. And I don't think that you can put a national designation on the person that Jesus would call us to care about and to serve. And I don't think that we should look at that ability as being one that is limited by merely human limits, because we believe that it's something that the Lord helps make possible when we work together in His name.
INSKEEP: My colleague noticed that the Diocese of El Paso website has a quote from Leviticus, which begins, when strangers sojourn with you in your land, you shall do them no wrong. What does that quote mean to you in this context?
SEITZ: Well, it seems very clear, doesn't it? And the scriptures say over and over. I've been told by a Jewish rabbi that the scriptures, the Hebrew scriptures, say that we should care for the stranger many more times than it says that they should care for their own. You know, it's a message that I suppose we've needed to hear through the ages, but one that comes through strongly both in the Old Testament, as we Christians call it, and the New Testament.
INSKEEP: I am thinking of another phrase from the Bible, a quote from Jesus about rendering unto Caesar, basically letting the government do what they feel they need to do. Does the state, the government, have some different responsibility here than you or your faith might?
SEITZ: I don't think so. I think that faith should be a source of conscience and a guide for the nation. And that render unto Caesar statement, I think, has been misinterpreted in many ways through time. It's not Jesus saying, you know, that there are two separate realities, but rather to say, if you look at it again, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God. Well, what belongs to God? He's the creator of everything. And Jesus is really saying we ought to be giving our full service to Him and to do what He calls us, to live the way He calls us to live.
INSKEEP: I guess I should note, many Catholics are politically conservative. Many Latinos are politically conservative, and some of them may well be Catholic. And some of them voted for President Trump. And you're in a red state. What kinds of discussions have you heard about this issue over the past year?
SEITZ: Well, of course, we hear what you're hearing, that a lot of people are very concerned because they've been bombarded with negative narratives about immigrants. I think sometimes maybe when we take in the news, it reinforces over and over again isolated incidents in which an immigrant behaved badly. And we've lost the perception that they're human beings. The truth is that in an immigrant community, you are less likely to face crime than in a native-born community. That's certainly not the impression it seems that most Americans may have right now.
INSKEEP: Has your stance on this cost the church any parishioners in your area, so far as you know?
SEITZ: Not so far as I know. And I think we understand this issue better here on the border in El Paso as a place where people have, for time in memorial, crossed back and forth. The people here are proud Americans and proud of their Mexican heritage. And they don't feel threatened by those who have come from another place. So it's a different kind of atmosphere very often. We don't experience border the same way people who have not been here might.
INSKEEP: Do you see any evidence that people's thinking has changed through the experiences of this year, in some cases, seeing their friends and neighbors deported - perhaps in some people's minds, also threats removed - however they think about it?
SEITZ: Oh, absolutely. I've certainly heard people say, this is not what I voted for. They're feeling like this has gone way beyond what they expected. No one wants the system of immigration to be a disorderly one, right? We all want an orderly system. No one wants people who are doing crime to be free on the streets. We all agree that those people should face consequences for their behavior. But I don't think what people were looking for was mass deportation and disrupting the lives of people in their community, people that they know.
INSKEEP: Well, Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, thank you so much.
SEITZ: My pleasure. God bless you and your listeners.
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