Personal prayer, reflection, and study on the letter by Marian Casillas, Ed.D. - “We Will Come to You: United in Solidarity with Our Brothers and Sisters in Migration” by Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller

Personal prayer, reflection, and study on the letter by Marian Casillas, Ed.D.

“We Will Come to You: United in Solidarity with Our Brothers and Sisters in Migration” by Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller

It is stated in the letter that, “We are encouraged to use it for personal prayer, reflection, and study”, and this is what I have set out to do to the best of my God-given ability.

Throughout the letter the situation is incorrectly labeled as “immigration enforcement”, when in reality it is “illegal immigration enforcement”. There is a vast difference between legal and illegal immigration, between migrants and immigrants. However, the letter never precisely defines the terms immigrants and migrants, purposefully using them interchangeably, thereby, edifying, enhancing, and elevating further the continuance of conflict and confusion.

According to the International Catholic Migration Commission, “An immigrant is a person who moves to a foreign country to live there permanently, while a migrant is a broader term for someone who moves from one place to another, either temporarily or permanently, and either within their own country or across borders, often for seasonal or work opportunities.”

The Catholic Church in her teaching documents says that all nations have the right and responsibility to set forth their own rules and regulations regarding their proper process for legal immigration.

Given that there are so many injustices and sins in the world, like the heinous, harmful, and hurtful procurement of abortion, the abomination of sodomy, all the sinful issues plaguing our culture brought about by the prideful, morally corrupted, rainbow-colored flag waving people, and so many other injustices and sins which are so rampant in our society, why does the letter single out only this particular issue of immigration? In reality, this is not an injustice, but rather the current administration seeking to bring law and order to the issue of immigration, where before it was lawlessness and disorder.

The title of the letter is taken from the scriptural verse John 14:18 which states: “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” These are the words of Jesus speaking to his disciples. Unfortunately, it is purposely misconstrued as “We, united in solidarity will come to you, our brothers and sisters in migration.”  This is not what it means.  It means that Jesus will not leave us orphans; that Jesus will come to us.

Another scriptural citing that is misconstrued by placing verse 23 before verse 18: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” (John 14: 23) “I will not leave you desolate. I will come to you.” (John 14: 18)

Jesus says, “We will come to him” meaning that the Father and the Son will come to whoever loves Him and keeps His word.

The letter states: “We are living in a world of war.”  Yes, there is a constant spiritual war for the eternal salvation of souls.

The letter states: “Across continents, people are dying every day.” Yes, deaths are occurring daily from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide, genital mutilation of children for supposedly sex-change surgeries, termination of contractual agreements with surrogates resulting in the killing of unborn children, and the killing of embryos not deemed suitable for the process of invitro fertilization (IVF), all of which are platform policies of the Democrat Party.

The letter gives thanks “to those who build bridges”. Yet, I’m sure that the Church’s hierarchy of archbishops, bishops, cardinals, and the pope are not building bridges when their residential mansions are surrounded by fences, gates, guards, walls, and high-tech security systems. The Church’s hierarchy can have all of those safeguards in place to protect themselves and their private property, but our country cannot protect its citizens and its sovereignty? Do I hear hypocrites harping and haranguing to hurt the conservative political party platform policies and help the liberal political party platform policies?

The letter states that “the Church cannot be silent”. Unfortunately, the Church has been silent in allowing and acquiescing to illegal immigration, even encouraging it so that the declining numbers of American Catholics can be bolstered by those coming into our country especially from Catholic Spanish speaking nations.

Another reason why the Church has been silent is that the United States Catholic bishops received most of their funding from the United States government for the following programs: the United States Refugee Admissions program, the Refugee and Entrant Assistance program, and the Unaccompanied Alien Children program, and other Democrat Party platform policy-aligned so-called social justice activities. Why would the Catholic Church have been in cahoots with the Biden-Democrat administration, secretly working together, forming a hidden partnership, planning something shady and sneaky, allowing and being an accomplice to the horrendous human trafficking of Unaccompanied Alien Children? Could it possibly have been for profit, making money off the backs of innocent and helpless children temporarily placed in shelters or foster care, while seeking sponsors for them to live with? What a most despicable thing for the Catholic Church to have been involved with! Thankfully under the Trump-Republican Administration the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is no longer receiving federal grant money or renewing cooperative agreements for migrant and refugee resettlement services, including programs for Unaccompanied Alien Children. However, the USCCB pursued legal action and sought millions of dollars in pending reimbursements from the federal government for services previously provided before agreements were halted. Thankfully under the Trump-Republican administration the number of Unaccompanied Alien Children has dramatically decreased. Under the Biden-Democrat administration, given the overwhelming number of Unaccompanied Alien Children, oftentimes the children were abused, assaulted, and certainly exploited. Is this what the archbishop would want to be continued? This is not humanitarian, this is horrifying! No matter how dire and despondent the situation in their homeland might be, it is far better for children to be with their loving and caring parents and family. Rich children live in poverty if they lack the love and nurturing of their parents and family.

During the Biden-Democrat Administration the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) received $180.4 million in revenue from government contracts and grants. This represented approximately 81.8% of the USCCB's total revenue. The USCCB passed the bulk of the federal grants down to a network of local dioceses and affiliate organizations, such as Catholic Charities, which handled the direct work.

The Church is losing its sense of what it is, the Bride of Christ, and under the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops it seems to have wanted to become just another NGO (non-governmental organization). Communists, Marxists, and Socialists who have infiltrated the Church have turned works of charity into merely secular “social justice” activities, emptying them of the work of salvation.  

Del Rio, Texas falls under the jurisdiction of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul Southwest Texas Council which does receive government grants, but it is for less than 5% of its total revenue, relying primarily on private donations, community partnerships, and church collections.

A former pastor at Saint Joseph Parish in Del Rio, Texas, Father Clay Hunt, would pray in the parish hall with the people in need of assistance before the food commodities were distributed.

Does anyone pray with those who come to the Catholic Charities building in Del Rio, Texas? True Catholic Charity includes feeding the stomach for earthly life, but most importantly feeding the soul for everlasting life.

The letter states that there are “those without immigration status”. They do have an immigration status, it is an illegal immigrant status.

It seems that all the sad, sentimental, and sob stories support and sustain the status quo of a broken immigration system and the letter is replete with such stories. We all make our choices and all choices have consequences.

The current Trump-Republican administration, after decades of past administrations especially Democrat administrations, benefiting and profiting from a broken immigration system is finally taking the bull by the horns and trying to fix it. We, the taxpaying citizens, are thankful to President Trump for facing this head on, doing the heavy lifting, and doing the thankless hard work of ending the mass invasion that was overtaking our country and overpowering our citizens.

We are told to “uphold the dignity of the human person”. There is nothing dignified about human trafficking, human smuggling, being a second-class citizen living in the shadows, and relegated to earning low wages.

The letter misguidedly equates present day illegal immigration in the United States with the Holy Family fleeing into Egypt. The Holy Family fled with the intention of returning to their homeland once the threat on the life of Jesus had passed, but those now fleeing their homeland have no intention of returning to their homeland, but rather living in the United States permanently. What is failed to be mentioned is that the Holy Family did not stay permanently in Egypt, but left once the threat on the life of Jesus no longer existed. The Holy Family lived in Jerusalem which was the historic capital city of the Kingdom of Judah and the central city of the mountainous southern region of Judea. Egypt was a logical place to find refuge, as it was outside the dominions of King Herod who sought to kill Jesus. Both Egypt and Judea were part of the Roman Empire linked by a coastal road known as "the way of the sea", making travel between them easy and relatively safe.

The letter states, “A person’s dignity does not hinge on a passport, a visa, or a work permit”. Of course, everyone would agree, however, every law-abiding person has a passport, a visa, or a work permit.

The letter shows a photo of the archbishop praying with incarcerated men at the Bexar County Adult Detention Center during Father’s Day Mass, an annual visit he also makes to the women’s unit on Mother’s Day. Does this mean that the archbishop visits the inmates in each of these correctional facilities only once a year? Is this solely done as a publicity stunt because of the special day he chooses to go: Mother’s Day at the women’s correctional facility and Father’s Day at the men’s correctional facility? What a grand gesture, which of course, the media is sure to cover, and it is splashed all over social media. The story always includes the scriptural verse, “I was in prison and you visited me.”  (Matthew 25: 36).

The letter also conveniently coincides with the 100^th Anniversary of the Elevation of the Diocese of San Antonio to a Metropolitan Archdiocese.

We each have our individual sphere of influence, the circle of people around us. With the grace of God, we can change the hearts, minds, and souls of those who God providentially placed along our path. We can influence our city, county, state and national government by voting. The majority of citizens of this country voted for the current Trump-Republican administration, giving our representatives a clear mandate to stop illegal immigration and enforce the laws of the land.

Thank God we now live in a land of law and order under the current Trump-Republican administration as opposed to other former administrations especially the Biden-Democrat administration that advocated for lawlessness and disorder to reign supreme throughout the land, nowhere more evident than at our southern border.

Lest we forget that in September 2021 under the Biden-Democrat administration, over 15,000 immigrants, mostly Haitian nationals, gathered in a squalid makeshift camp beneath the Del Rio International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas, awaiting United States Border Patrol processing. Immigrants faced severe shortages of food, clean drinking water, and adequate sanitation facilities amid high temperatures. This is not a dignified manner to treat immigrants; this is disgraceful and deplorable.

The letter is replete with specifically selected scriptural passages that are poised to poignantly convince Christians that God commands mass immigration, open borders, and pathways to citizenship for all undocumented immigrants.

Mass detention and mass deportation are devised and directed to work as deterrents and disincentives, so that others will not pursue illegal immigration, knowing full well what dire consequences are held in store for them and their families.

The letter desperately tries to relate past historical events, like the Cristero War with the present-day reality of illegal immigration. Yet, there is no government persecution because of their religious faith. They are not told not to practice their faith or to renounce Christ and the Catholic Church as was the case during the Cristero War in Mexico. Illegal immigrants are deceptively and misleadingly being equated with disciples, missionaries, and martyrs of Jesus Christ.

The letter highly extols the life story and legacy of the archbishop. He places himself as an exemplary role model throughout his life for us to emulate and espouse.  Everywhere he goes and everything he does, he honors himself as a champion of the immigrants, being an immigrant and standing with the immigrants.

We are encouraged and exhorted to welcome the stranger. Would you open the door of your house to complete strangers? Neither should our country open its borders to complete strangers! Does the archbishop open the door of his mansion to complete strangers?  When the mansion where he resides was built in 2009 it cost $1.1 million and included: a master bedroom, two guest rooms, a study, a two-car garage, a living room with a fireplace and wet bar, kitchen and dining room that accommodates up to 25 persons, and an outdoor courtyard with a small fountain in the center of the home.  I’m sure the property where his mansion is located has an expensive, elaborate security system, and if anyone should trespass into his property, law enforcement would be expeditiously summoned to apprehend the intruder. There would be no welcoming with love and respect of the stranger by the archbishop, no solidarity, no encounter, and no accompaniment. The intruder would be swiftly removed from the premise and taken to a facility where law-breakers are housed. What’s good for the archbishop is good for our citizens! Would it matter to the archbishop if the intruder entered his property due to the circumstances of his poverty, hunger, or fear, or that he was fleeing from violence, oppression, or environmental disasters? None of this would matter. All that mattered was that the stranger was trespassing on private property, and it was against the law.

Under the cover of Christianity and cloaked with Catholicism, the archbishop appears to be an anarchist, a revolutionary, radical rebel, intentionally instigating or inciting an insurrection against the legitimate, representatively elected government of the sovereign United States of America. Christ never mentions what the government, the rulers of the land, or the kings of his day should do or not do. Christ speaks to each of us individually about what we should do or not do.

The letter refers to our sisters and brothers who have immigrated as “missionaries of hope”, “missionaries of God’s love”, and “missionaries among us”. They are not missionaries among us. We are meant to go and be missionaries to them in their homelands. The truthful reality is that not all immigrants are missionaries, not all are so benevolent as to be beyond reproach, and not all are bestowing blessings as their mission. The truth is that some might be menacing and malevolent. Like the moniker of “noble savages” meaning that an indigenous person is someone untouched by modern society and is inherently good, pure, and morally superior. However, there is nothing noble about savagery. Likewise, bestowing the moniker of missionaries upon illegal immigrants does not automatically make them so. It is important that we do not romanticize or sanctify illegal immigrants, like the noble savage’s concept romanticizes and sanctifies all the indigenous people.

The letter states that 73% of those in immigration detention have no criminal conviction, but it is against the law to enter this country illegally. It also states that “only” 5% have been convicted of a violent crime, that’s five (5) out of every one-hundred (100) people who enter illegally, but there should be zero (0) allowed to enter with a violent crime conviction.

The letter states that a pathway to citizenship would generate $1.7 trillion in growth. Wouldn’t that incentivize breaking the law? Those who come here illegally would rationalize it by saying that they could stay in the country anyway because they would eventually be granted a pathway to citizenship. The letter falsely declares and justifies that illegal immigration will not weaken the nation, but rather sustain it, by producing economic growth. The truth is that law-breakers, always and everywhere, weaken a nation. Law-abiding people, who support just laws and sustain our country not only economically, but more important ethically and morally by following the rules and regulations set forth by the government for the safety and protection of the citizens, strengthen our country.  The letter is setting a bad precedent by giving cover to law-breakers, because siding with those who break the law only allows more law-breakers to continue breaking the laws of this country. Wouldn’t that constitute being an accomplice and accessory to a crime?

The letter rightly denotes that the narrative of fear does not begin at our nation’s border, but that it begins in countries where the conditions for a dignified human life have collapsed, in towns where violence has made ordinary life impossible, and in homes where parents cannot feed their children. However, all of this is the responsibility of those countries to help people in their own countries, in their towns, and in their homes.

The letter brings up the old trope of the disingenuous and disgraceful so-called “color card”, stating that there exist documented patterns of racial disparity in enforcement against Hispanics, Latinos, and other people of color. The so-called “race card” is played to deflect from the real issue of illegal immigration and blame the problem instead on discrimination.

The letter states that a litmus test for social justice is the treatment of migrants, refugees, and those forced to move due to poverty, violence, climate change, and environmental disaster. How about the way their home country treats them to begin with? Why put the obligation on our country, when there are many other countries in this hemisphere where they could go to?

The letter quotes the scriptural verse from Matthew 25:35: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” You, an individual person, not a country, not a government, and not a state. You and I are called by Christ to personally welcome the strangers among us.

Instead of toning down the rhetoric, the archbishop and his antagonists deliberately chose to turn up the volume and try to make the case of the bleeding-heart liberals instead of defending what is right and just.  We are not the caretakers of the world. We need to be primarily concerned with taking care of our own citizens.

The letter was promulgated at San Fernando Cathedral on August 3, 2026, exactly three (3) months before the mid-term elections on November 3, 2026. This is no mere coincidence that the letter was disseminated three (3) months prior to the mid-term elections, but rather a concerted effort to sway Catholics towards the radical leftist’s agenda of “open borders”. With the political policy of “open borders” we are invited to be united in solidarity with immigrants. But in reality, with “open borders”, we leave ourselves open, exposed, and vulnerable to cartels, criminals, terrorists, and drug/human traffickers.

This letter is a cleverly crafted ploy to propagate progressive propaganda, especially targeting faithful Catholics before the mid-term elections. The front cover of the booklet which depicts the profile silhouette of Christ with the Crown of Thorns is definitely utilized to evoke the epitome of human suffering, and the upmost tragic of human experiences.  The letter is a masterpiece of media marketing with the glossy booklet, the evocative photos, and the descriptive narrative utilizing the archbishop to make the case in point for the liberal progressives who wish to see the traditional conservatives defeated in the upcoming elections.

Let us hope citizens are not foolish, feckless, and fall for the lies in this letter. May Christians prayerfully invoke the Holy Spirit to rightly discern that all those who contributed to constructing this letter are pawns of the progressives and putty in their hands.

The letter evokes the Communist, Marxist, and Socialist ideology of people standing together with their right arm lifted in a clenched fist signifying their support of a subversive social movement, instead of the universal stance of the Catholic faith of people with every head bowed, every knee bent, and with palms-pressed together signifying praying hands imploring before the Divine Throne of Almighty God.

The previous Democrat administrations of Obama and Biden have already allowed the Trojan Horse to enter our country with the invisible Islamic invasion, and the Church and its clerical hierarchy have been silent. If they finally decide to speak up, it will be too late, because sharia law will be the law of the land, churches will be turned into mosques, and priests will be replaced by imans.

This is where we are eventually headed towards if we persist with “open borders” and “pathways to citizenship”, leading to our destruction and demise as a constitutional federal republic, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Be forewarned. Be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it, and then unfortunately, it turns out you end up getting something you didn’t expect! If you think what’s happening in Europe with the growing prevalence of political Islam on the Continent can’t happen here, think again, because I’m sure they didn’t think it would happen to them.

1 Maccabees 3:20–22 records the inspiring words of Judas Maccabeus to his soldiers before battle, reminding them that victory comes from God, "They come against us in great insolence and lawlessness to destroy us . . ., and to despoil us; but we fight for our lives and our laws. He himself will crush them before us; as for you, do not be afraid . . ."

Come Lord Jesus! May we be united, not in solidarity, but in the love of Christ; and not only with our brothers and sisters in migration, but with ALL our brothers and sisters!

- Marian Casillas, Ed.D.