Religious Immigration and Protection
Religious Immigration and Protection
As the number of foreign-born Catholics in the United States continues to rise, the number of U.S. men and women dedicating their lives to religious service goes down.
Responding to the need, the Church has reached out to foreign-born religious workers to address the growing need for spiritual and pastoral ministry in the U.S.
CLINIC’s Center for Religious Immigration and Protection assists more than 250 archdioceses, dioceses and religious institutions to bring foreign-born religious workers to the U.S. for education, formation, or ministry.
Recently, CLINIC’s religious immigration attorneys represented a South Korean priest who was lawfully working for the Church in the U.S. and was returning from a visit to the Holy Land. While he had a valid visa to re-enter the U.S., U.S. Customs and Border Protection (Customs) mistakenly stopped him and sent him back to South Korea.
The attorney and CLINIC’s Center for Immigrant Rights worked together with the Customs agency to resolve the error. The priest was issued a new visa and has now returned to the U.S., ministering to those in his parish and diocese.
The Center for Religious Immigration and Protection has a staff of seven attorneys and four legal assistants.
IN 2010 CLINIC’s CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS IMMIGRATION:
- represented 78 dioceses and 172 religious communities. The majority of their clients are from Mexico, the Philippines and Colombia.
- had an average of 1,000 active case files that may take a single client from initial entry into the U.S. to serve all the way through naturalization.
