President John Garvey and other leaders within the Catholic University community have been vocal advocates for federal action on immigration reform that is, in Garvey’s words, “rooted in charity and hospitality.” Following is a compilation of remarks, media interviews, and commentaries by President Garvey and others in support of Dreamers, undocumented students and workers, and all of the nation’s immigrants. 

 

2018 honorary degree recipients
At its annual Commencement ceremony in May 2018, the University bestowed honorary degrees upon five immigrants to the United States, in recognition of their many contributions to their adopted homeland. They included (top photo, from left) Ray Mahmood, founder of Mahmood Investment Corp.; Dina Katabi, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT; and Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez. Also (bottom photo), Toufic Baaklini, president and chairman of the board of the nonprofit organization In Defense of Christians, and Maria Suarez Hamm, longtime executive director of Centro Tepeyac in Silver Spring, Md.

Statements of Institutional Support

(Nov. 30, 2016) Catholic University President John Garvey Signs Statement Supporting Students Who Qualify for DACA.
Read the statement supporting DACA students

(Dec. 2, 2016) President Garvey tells Crux that Catholic educational leaders’ support for undocumented students demonstrates that the Church is not just concerned about pro-life and religious liberty issues, but also about care for the poor and immigrants. He also expressed the hope that statements from more than 100 Catholic colleges and universities nationwide send a message to the Trump administration about retaining the DACA program, and about working for the just treatment of the nation’s immigrants.
Read the Crux article

(Dec. 13, 2016) After co-signing a letter from the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities expressing hope that DACA-qualified students will be able to continue their studies without interruption, Catholic University President John Garvey told Our Sunday Visitor that, “It’s really important we change the terms of the debate, that we make students who are here on visas, young people who didn’t arrive here under their own steam, to make them feel welcome in this country.” 
Read the Our Sunday Visitor article

(Jan. 24, 2017) In an op-ed, “What should guide U.S. immigration policy: self-interest or charity?” published in America magazine, President Garvey argues, “it seems plain that an immigration policy rooted in charity and hospitality is worthy of our admiration.”
Read the America magazine op-ed

(March 28, 2017) Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez, a Catholic University Trustee, delivered a message to the campus community about the need for immigration reform. “A person is a child of God even if he doesn’t have the proper papers,” said Gomez, who is also the author of the book Immigration and the Next America: Renewing the Soul of Our Nation. 
Read more about the speech by Archbishop Gomez

(May 27, 2017) President Garvey tells Crux that the Catholic Church has always stood with immigrants but particularly with the young and with families seeking a better life.
Read the Crux article

(Sept. 5, 2017) President John Garvey Responds to Decision to End DACA.
Read the statement

(Sept. 7, 2017) Joseph Capizzi, director of Catholic University’s Institute for Human Ecology, was quoted in a Yahoo! News article about the Christian defense of DACA.
Read the Yahoo! News article

(Sept. 13, 2017) In “The Prerogative of Power,” Catholic University President John Garvey writes that, executive action by President Donald Trump aside, it is up to Congress “to make DACA permanent, and it should.” 
Read the CNS column

(Sept. 14, 2017) Matthew Green, ordinary professor of politics and an associate fellow with the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies, tells Angelus News that the plight of DACA recipients represents at least one area in which U.S. Catholic bishops can rally bipartisan support. 
Read the Angelus News article

(Feb. 6, 2018) In a Perspective piece for The Washington Post shortly after President Trump’s State of the Union address, Associate Professor of History Julia Young cautions that whether undertaken to try to protect native-born workers or, more pointedly for some, to make the U.S. immigrant population less Latin American, African and Asian, efforts to reform “immigration policy, especially when engineered to whiten the population, [have] a tendency to backfire.”
Read The Washington Post article