Opinion: Bishops’ immigration warning is a wakeup call. Will politicians answer?

As we move into the holiday season with its familiar messages of peace and goodwill it is worth pausing to hear a powerful warning from American faith leaders about the Trump administration s government-sanctioned cruelty toward immigrants The U S Catholic Bishops up-to-date special report on immigrants is an essential moral intervention in our time Our history shows that when faith communities speak with moral clarity about social crises it often precedes the moment when political leaders ultimately wake up Related Articles San Mateo County moves to tighten limits on cooperation with ICE DHS plans to deploy boundary agents to Louisiana in major immigration sweep AP sources say Florida grandfather born in refugee camp nabbed by ICE after years in U S Alleged captain of panga charged in capsizing deaths of four newcomers near San Diego Trump sues California over law that bans masked federal agents This has been true from the pulpits before the American Revolution to the abolitionists the Social Gospel reformers the civil-rights clergy and the anti-war pastors of the Vietnam era In each incident the nation stood at a turning point The bishops message nowadays is plain and urgent They condemn indiscriminate mass deportation call out the vilification of immigrants and assure those suffering that you are not alone They urge Catholics to welcome immigrants patronage ministries that aid them reject dehumanizing rhetoric and defend the God-given dignity of every person This is a moral alarm bell the kind America has long relied upon usually arriving before political leaders at last find their courage History provides the pattern Before the Revolution ministers who had fled tyranny understood how easily power could twist religion into oppression When Boston s Rev Jonathan Mayhew declared in that resistance to tyranny is obedience to God he warned a people who would soon fight for their freedom John Adams later called Mayhew s preaching the spark that ignited the American Revolution The bishops letter stands in that same tradition a clear declaration that human dignity is being violated and fear is becoming agenda And in the current era as in earlier moments of situation faith leaders are already paying a price for speaking truth In Chicago Presbyterian minister David Black was struck in the head by a pepper ball fired by an ICE agent while he led prayer at a protest Here in the East Bay Rev Jorge Bautista a pastor at United Church of Christ congregation in San Mateo was shot in the face with a pepper round during protests at the entrance to Coast Guard Island which lies between Alameda and Oakland Their courage underscores what the bishops are saying this is a moral urgency not a routine guidelines dispute We have seen this pattern before The Social Gospel movement challenged the greed and abuses of the Gilded Age long before Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt acted Martin Luther King Jr denounced segregation years before Congress passed the Civil Rights Act During the Vietnam War clergy called the conflict immoral long before the majority elected bureaucrats dared speak In America moral awakenings come before political ones We are in such an awakening now A major political faction has chosen power over principle and cruelty over compassion The bishops message cuts through the noise It is not partisan It is moral It reminds us that a nation is judged by how it treats the vulnerable not by how loudly it celebrates the powerful The message is simple Immigrants are human beings They are neighbors They must not be abandoned By insisting on dignity welcome dialogue and improvement the bishops reclaim a deep American tradition faith leaders speaking up when too a large number of others remain silent Their declaration matters because it names what is happening adds to restoring a missing moral voice in masses life and calls us back to conscience This is the first step toward justice As we celebrate a season devoted to peace and compassion the bishops have stepped into the light The question now is whether the rest of us will follow Tom Debley is a retired East Bay journalist and citizens affairs officer He lives in Walnut Creek