The U.S. Catholic bishops are raising serious moral concerns over the federal government’s reported plan to dramatically expand immigration detention, warning that the scale and structure of the proposal should “challenge the conscience of every American.”
In a statement released Feb. 20, Bishop Brendan Cahill of Victoria, Texas, who chairs the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Migration, responded to reports that the Trump administration intends to double federal immigration detention capacity by the end of September, when fiscal year 2026 concludes.
According to budget figures cited by the bishops, the plan would invest tens of billions of dollars into constructing large-scale facilities capable of holding thousands of people at a time, including families.
"Aside from the internment camps used to incarcerate Japanese Americans in the 1940s, such facilities have no precedent in American history," the bishops’ statement claimed.
“These plans are deeply troubling,” Bishop Cahill said. “The federal government does not have a positive track record when it comes to detaining large numbers of people, especially families, and the proposed scale of these facilities is difficult to comprehend.”
According to the statement, the proposal reportedly includes at least eight facilities that could each hold between 7,000 and 10,000 people.
“The thought of holding thousands of families in massive warehouses should challenge the conscience of every American,” Bishop Cahill stated.
“Last November,” the statement continued, “my brother bishops and I unequivocally opposed the indiscriminate mass deportation of people and raised concerns about existing conditions in detention centers.”
Bishop added that the USCCB has “also opposed the expansion of family detention, recognizing its harmful impacts on children in particular.”
“Whatever their immigration status, these are human beings created in the image and likeness of God, and this is a moral inflection point for our country,” Bishop Cahill said.
The statement calls on lawmakers and federal officials to reconsider the proposed expansion and instead pursue immigration policies that respect “human dignity, the sanctity of families, and religious liberty.”