The US Bishops’ Hypocrisy on Human Trafficking

Platitudes and press statements will not be enough to confront the depraved evils of human trafficking.

America’s Catholic bishops are decrying the evils of human trafficking, while ignoring their own role in facilitating the dehumanizing practice amidst the illegal immigration crisis. Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, chairman of immigration activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), said in a statement Thursday, “Human trafficking is not only a serious crime — it is a rejection of the God-given dignity of every human being.”

He added, “As Catholics, we are called to face this issue with both courage and compassion, to initiate hard conversations, and to confront the harsh realities of trafficking and exploitation.”

One “hard conversation” that it seems the bishops have been avoiding, however, is that of their own role in facilitating the illegal immigration crisis at the southern border, and the ensuing human trafficking. Over the past four years, the number of unaccompanied migrant children who have gone missing at the border has tripled: of the roughly half a million children who crossed the border without a guardian, over 300,000 have gone missing.

Mexican, Venezuelan, Cuban, and Salvadoran gangs and cartels will promise to help women and children cross the border, dazzling them with visions of well-paying jobs in America. Once across the border, however, these women and children are often prostituted, which traffickers say is a means of repaying the debt they incurred to the gangs and cartels for their help crossing the border.

It is worth noting that the Office on Human Trafficking in Persons, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has only reported the number of unaccompanied migrant children who have been found and are known to have been trafficked. There are thousands of children still missing, many of whom have likely been sold into sex slavery or forced into prostitution.

The Catholic bishops of the U.S. and their affiliate organizations have, unfortunately, helped facilitate this tragedy. More than that, they have profited from doing so. According to data compiled by the organization Corpus Christi for Unity and Peace, the USCCB and its affiliates were paid nearly $450 million to deal with unaccompanied migrant children, many of whom were either placed with unvetted adult sponsors or are still missing.

Continue reading at the American Spectator
 

TAKE ACTION: Contact Bishop Seitz at 915-872-8419 or officeofthebishop@elpasodiocese.org and tell him to get out of the business of trafficking illegal aliens.