The study found Latina immigrant women in Arizona who were pregnant during the contentious S.B. 1070 passage had babies with lower birthweight compared with those in prior years. Average birth weights did not decrease among U.S.-born white, black or Latina women during the same time.

“We witness daily how, working together, people of all faiths can focus on helping the person in front of us,” Sister Pimentel, the executive director of Catholic Charities in the Rio Grande Valley, wrote in an op-ed addressed to the president yesterday in The Washington Post.

“This barrier is absolutely critical for border security.”

There is plenty of work to be done at the border that does not include building a wall.

While the Trump administration has said the wall is necessary to curb illegal immigration and drug trafficking, many faith leaders who live along the border see things differently.

Archbishop García-Siller keynoted “The Church in America: A Conversation on Immigration,” an event co-sponsored by America Media and the Mexican American Catholic College. Norma Pimentel, M.J., executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley and Sean Carroll, S.J., executive

In the fiscal year of 2018, U.S. immigration judges denied asylum in 65 percent of cases.

Members of the Central American caravan will likely have to wait months to have their asylum cases heard, according to the Rev. Pat Murphy, a Scalabrini priest who runs the Casa del Migrante in Tijuana, Baja California. Fewer than 5 percent will be granted asylum, he said.

The “Catholic Removal Impact Survey of Society” surveyed 133 deportees to provide insights into the effects of deportation on immigrants and their families.

Those who cross the border illegally will be unable to claim asylum after President Trump signed a proclamation limiting such claims on Friday.