A few weeks ago, Pope Leo XIV began naming the first bishops of his papacy. Among them was Bishop Michael Pham, who has served as an auxiliary bishop in the Diocese of San Diego since 2023 and was selected in 2025 as the next leader of the diocese. Bishop Pham, who was born in Vietnam and came to the United States as a refugee, will become the first Vietnamese-American bishop to lead a diocese.
On Friday, June 20, World Refugee Day, Bishop Pham went to court. He led an interreligious delegation of clergy to the immigration courts in a federal building in downtown San Diego. According to the Times of San Diego, agents for Immigration and Customs Enforcement “scattered,” and no one was detained, which immigration lawyers had expected to happen.
“Like the story of Moses and Exodus, the Red Sea parted,” one observer said.
In a homily delivered beforehand at the cathedral, Bishop Pham defended immigrants, denounced the policy and tactics being employed by the Trump administration and shared his own story. “Today, I stand as a leader of the Catholic Church thanks to these opportunities that allowed me to contribute to society. I believe most refugees, immigrants, and migrants over the years, whether documented or undocumented, come to the United States seeking opportunities for a better life and success…. I believe most people like me strive to be good. It is concerning to observe the current situation in the United States,” Bishop Pham said. “When I was 10 years old, living in Vietnam, I witnessed this situation. It involved seeing people being taken away without an obvious reason.”
Bishops in the United States are at times criticized as only being concerned about abortion and other life issues. One can point to countless statements and press releases from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and from individual bishops about other issues of concern to Catholics, including immigration. But the direct action of Bishop Pham and other faith leaders is likely to leave a stronger impression in the minds of the public, and of the immigrants who are circling in and out of court, than anything on paper.
Bishop Pham, according to the Times of San Diego, suggested that priests would return to court or that a ministry would be established to accompany migrants in immigration hearings. Such a ministry, he said, would be led by Jesuit priest Scott Santarosa, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in San Diego and a former Jesuit provincial, who was also at the courthouse Friday.
Amid the despair I felt reading headlines this weekend, it was hard not to feel proud to be Catholic after watching one of our leaders bring the authority and ministry of the church to a gravely unjust proceeding.
Like Bishop Pham on the other side of the country, Brad Lander, New York City’s comptroller and a Democratic mayoral candidate who has said that he is “so Jewish he almost became a rabbi,” showed up in an immigration court last week. He was there to witness proceedings and escort migrant families who were at risk for arrest, detention and deportation.
The scenes in recent weeks at courthouses in New York, where I live, are Kafkaesque. The New York Times detailed events at 26 Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan, which contains an ICE headquarters and three of New York City’s immigration courts. The report describes masked agents roaming the hallways, detained migrants sleeping on bathroom floors and an atmosphere of fear and intimidation among people who are simply trying to comply with an unjust and inadequate immigration system. “The arrests, in and near courts where millions of foreign-born individuals nationwide showed up last year so that judges could determine whether they could stay in the country, have turned the once unexceptional government offices into a daily political spectacle,” The Times concluded.
In the courthouse on June 17, Mr. Lander refused to let go of Edgardo, a man who was about to be arrested by ICE agents, one of whom had a black ski mask pulled over his face. Mr. Lander repeatedly asked to see a judicial warrant until he was finally pushed up against a wall and arrested, which allowed the agents to apprehend Edgardo.
After spending a few hours in federal custody, Mr. Lander was released and told reporters, “I know I will have due process, and I will have a good lawyer, and my rights will be protected. But Edgardo has no due process rights and no lawyer, and is going to sleep tonight in God knows where in an ICE detention facility.”
Some accused Mr. Lander of grandstanding, trying to inject life in the final days of the mayoral campaign before voters head to the polls on June 24. I suspect that his actions did not seem like grandstanding to Edgardo or the other immigrants in court.
With their actions of solidarity in court, Bishop Pham made me proud to be a Catholic and Brad Lander made me proud to be a New Yorker. And when I cast my ballot tomorrow for my city’s next mayor, I will do it with a prayer that New York will be a more welcoming home for everyone who lives here.
