For more than a year, religious organizations have been lobbying Congress and the Biden administration to address the sudden procedural changes in the government’s handling of religious matters Religious Worker Green CardThis threatens the ability of thousands of pastors to continue preaching in the United States.
The Catholic Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey, and its five priests, whose legal status in the United States is set to expire next spring, have sued the agency that oversees migrantThey argue that the change “will cause serious and substantial disruption to the lives and religious freedom of priests and the hundreds of thousands of Catholics they serve.”
“Our priests feel we’ve done the best we can,” said Bishop Kevin Sweeney, whose diocese covers 400,000 Catholics and 107 parishes in three New Jersey counties.
Raymond LaHood, an attorney for the lawsuit, said the Diocese of Paterson is the first diocese to file a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
But LaHood added that among religious groups also affected, “there is also a clamor” because Many rely on foreign-born clergy They have established strong ties with American parishes.
“It’s very disturbing,” said Bishop Mark Seitz, chairman of the immigration committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The group advocates for legislative and administrative solutions to the recent extraordinary delays in green card processing. Unsustainable”
On his own El Paso Frontier ParishThe Texas city of Seitz faces the possibility of losing its pastors because their applications for permanent residency have little chance of being approved before their visas expire, requiring them to leave the U.S. for at least a year.
“One is the pastor of a large, growing parish. Now I’m supposed to send him away for a year, lock him up, and then offer Mass somehow?” Seitz said.
To address a growing shortage of religious workers in recent decades, U.S. dioceses have long struck agreements with foreign parishes to bring in seminarians, priests and nuns from places as diverse as Poland, the Philippines and Nigeria, said the Rev. Thomas Gunter of Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Apostolic Studies.
Most other denominations, from Buddhism to Islam to Pentecostal Christianity, also recruit foreign-born clergy for a variety of reasons, including the need to serve growing non-English speaking congregations or the need for specialized training at foreign institutions with strong religious histories.
Most of these “religious workers,” as defined by the U.S. government, hold a temporary R-1 visa that allows them to work in the U.S. for five years. In the past, five years was enough for organizations to assess the suitability of clergy and then apply for permanent resident status (i.e., green cards) for them under a special category, EB-4.
Congress sets a cap on the number of green cards that can be issued each year in each category, generally based on type of employment or family relationship to a U.S. citizen. Wait times depend on whether and by how much demand exceeds the number of available visas in each category.
Citizens of countries with particularly high demand are put into a separate, often longer “line” — currently, the category with the largest backlog is married Mexican children of U.S. citizens, who will only be processed if they were filed 24 years ago.
Neglect or abuse Minors from GuatemalaHonduras and El Salvador — where increasing numbers of people have illegally crossed into the U.S. since the mid-2010s, seeking humanitarian green cards or asylum — were also placed in a separate queue. But in March 2023, the State Department announced that was a mistake and immediately began placing them in the general queue along with clergy.
This has resulted in a backlog that is currently over 3.5 years and is likely to increase. Some estimate that it may take 10 to 15 years to obtain these green cards.
“This situation is untenable,” said Lance Conklin, co-chairman of the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s religious workers group, who often represents evangelical pastors. “This lawsuit represents what a lot of people are thinking.”
The Bar, along with the bishops’ conference and other groups, has been lobbying Congress for a long-term solution — one that most recognize will be difficult to achieve given the political sensitivity of the issue. Immigration Reform —and simpler administrative changes that agencies can implement quickly.
Lawyers and advocates say one measure would allow applicants to change priesthoods — such as from associate to senior priest, or to transfer to another monastery — without losing eligibility for green cards. Or the government could reduce the amount of time they need to be outside the United States after their visas expire in order to get new ones.
“We can do it in a month,” Seitz said, compared with the current 12 months.
For now, most organizations are sticking with their old ways, hoping and praying that the government will make at least these temporary fixes — perhaps prompted by a lawsuit filed in August in U.S. District Court in New Jersey.
This is mainly because they have no other choice.
Different employment visas and green cards are more cumbersome and expensive to apply for, and many clergy members don’t qualify. For example, those who don’t receive any salary can’t prove they are paid the “prevailing wage,” one of the requirements designed to protect native-born American workers in nonreligious employment categories.
Mary O’Leary, a Michigan attorney who represents religious groups, said that’s often the case with Catholic nuns.
“Many religious groups are not wealthy,” she said. “They are not like Microsoft, where you can’t go to a business school or a computer science school and recruit people.”
In the Archdiocese of Chicago, a nun who works as a school aide must leave the U.S. when her visa expires in a few weeks, said Olga Rojas, senior adviser for immigration affairs in the diocese.
“The principal is so sad,” Rojas said, adding that religious workers across the U.S. have been forced to leave. “They want to stay and do their work.”
Miguel Naranjo, director of religious immigration services for the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, said in some cases his organization is working to bring religious workers back from overseas.
“This goes beyond ministry,” Naranjo added, as they often provide education, health care, youth and other social services. “They are the last safety net for many communities.”
