Rhina Guidos

The church is helping families in El Salvador who lost loved ones 40 years ago during the civil war. Fr. Manuel Acosta, is head of the Commission to Search for Persons Disappeared in the Context of the Armed Conflict.

As the U.S. marks Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in April, the Diocese of San Jose, California, issued a statement March 29 in support of those communities, given a spate of crimes throughout the country targeting them.

Pro-immigrant groups applauded a March 8 decision by the Biden administration to protect some 320,000 Venezuelans in the United States under a temporary immigration program.

Early projections of results of a Feb. 28 election in El Salvador show the conservative New Ideas (Nuevas Ideas) party en route to winning a majority of seats in the national legislative assembly, giving its founder, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, what amounts to absolute power, if lawmakers grant it.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador began bilateral cooperation talks March 1 with humor, a focus on limiting immigration to the U.S. and talk about Our Lady of Guadalupe.

President Joe Biden announced Feb. 24 a reversal of a 2020 proclamation by the Trump administration that sought to keep those applying for permanent residency cards, popularly known as green cards, out of the country because of the pandemic.

The Biden administration's U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, introduced in Congress Feb. 18, seeks to legalize some 11 million unauthorized immigrants currently in the U.S., with a special focus on reunification of families.

A Catholic panel analyzing a path forward during moments of strife or of social sin said the only way to move ahead as a society toward healing is to recognize the damage done to a person or communities, to lay the truth out for everyone to see.

El Salvador's bishops urged citizens to show faith, hard work and solidarity — not the violence on display during one of the most contentious political campaigns in the country's recent history.

In November, President-elect Joe Biden said that he would be heading in a dramatically different direction than the Trump administration on refugee admissions. On Feb. 4, Biden delivered.

Policy watchers expect a more immigrant-friendly path forward as well as help for some families adversely affected by Trump administration policies, but the specifics are not yet clear.

Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chávez asked the country to pray "for liberation from Satan" Feb. 1 after violence erupted following a political rally late Jan. 31 in the capital, San Salvador. At least two people died and several were injured.

The archbishop of San Salvador reversed course and said Jan. 20 he would allow investigators to view church archives related to a wartime massacre.

The 46th president of the United States along with fellow Catholics and other people of goodwill began the latest chapter in the nation's political history with a Mass ahead of the presidential inauguration.

The head of the San Salvador Archdiocese refused to allow a judge access to church records on one of the largest modern-day massacres in Latin America, saying Jan. 17 that he's simply protecting victims.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced that Rear Adm. Margaret Grun Kibben would replace Fr. Pat Conroy, who has served as the 60th House chaplain since 2011.

The final rule "will bar from asylum and withholding of removal certain applicants who may have come in contact with COVID-19," said the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC) in a statement voicing opposition. The decision is "punishing vulnerable people for a public health crisis," the organization said.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that seven countries will receive an extension for its citizens to remain in the U.S. under the Temporary Protected Status program.

The bishop of the Delaware Catholic diocese where Joe Biden has worshipped for decades offered congratulations and his hopes that voters heed the Gospel's call for unity.

A report by The New York Times says Central American migrant children seeking asylum in the United States are being sent to Mexico, where some have been located in shelters in cities where they have no familial or other connections.