Members of several groups advocating for comprehensive, compassionate immigration reform pledged to redouble their efforts in 2022 in a Dec. 17, 2021, press conference following the annual Posada Seeking Immigration Reform.

This year’s posada, which reenacts Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter in Bethlehem, aimed to remind participants and views that immigrants and refugees are people in search of shelter and hospitality, just like the Holy Family.

It was the 16th annual posada hosted by people involved in immigration ministry in the Archdiocese of Chicago and took as its theme “How long, Lord? How long?” (Ps 6:3). It was followed by a press conference about the efforts of advocacy and ministry groups affiliated with the archdiocese.

While Cardinal Cupich could not attend the event with groups engaged in immigration ministry, retired Auxiliary Bishop John Manz read a statement from the cardinal that said, in part:

“I stand in solidarity with them calling for elected officials to work diligently to create a compassionate and comprehensive path to citizenship for our undocumented sisters and brothers, and for all refugees. As we work toward that achievable goal, our government must work to stop the separation of families and instead invest in ways to both secure our borders and offer safe entry to those seeking safety. We can do both.”

Members of Priests for Justice for Immigrants, Sisters and Brothers of Immigrants, immigration parish coordinators, Pastoral Migratoria of the Archdiocese of Chicago, the National Pastoral Migratoria and Polish Immigrant-to-Immigrant Ministry promised efforts including fasting and prayer for reform in the U.S. immigration system; increased outreach to legislators, including trying to meet with Illinois Senators Richard Durbin and Tammy Duckworth; and increased education and advocacy around immigration issues.

For example, the Sisters and Brothers of Immigrants, made up of women and men religious, will advocate for the end of what is called the Migrant Protection Protocol, the remain-in-Mexico policy instituted by President Donald Trump and reinstated by the courts; and Title 42, a public health provision that has been used by both the Trump and Biden administrations to turn away asylum seekers without a hearing, even though public health authorities have said the migrants are not a health threat.

Elena Segura, the archdiocese’s senior coordinator for Immigration-National Ministry, said the efforts to change hearts and minds is not directed at either political party but to the whole country.

“They both have shut the doors to these Josephs and these Marys who have been seeking posada, seeking shelter,” she said, noting that the Archdiocese of Chicago started its immigration ministry in 2005, when the USCCB launched its Justice for Immigrants effort.

Since then, the White House and Congress have changed hands more than once, but efforts to overhaul the immigration system remain stalled.

But Segura told participants at the posada, gathered at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Building, 101 W. Ida B. Wells Parkway, that neither she nor the immigration ministry would abandon their efforts.

“The generations continue to cry out for immigration reform, for legislative shelter,” she said. “We honor our immigrants and refugees, who just like the Holy Family, are seeking a place to stay, a place of safety and shelter.”

From the USCIS building, the posada, led by people portraying Mary and Joseph, walked to the Metropolitan Correctional Center, 71 W. Van Buren St., where they prayed for immigrants who are being held in detention while waiting for hearings on their cases, and for those who are denied and deported.

Immigration attorney Royal Berg said he is part of a group that prays outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview every Friday morning, when deportations take place. On Dec. 17, they witnessed four vans and a bus of deportees leave the center to go to the airport.

From there, they went to DePaul University’s downtown campus, 1 E. Jackson Blvd., where they prayed for all the students without documents who are shut out of higher education because they cannot receive federal student aid, before heading to Federal Plaza at Dearborn and Adams streets to pray for Congress to take up and pass immigration reform.

The posada came the day after the U.S. Senate parliamentarian ruled that an effort to include some reform measures in the Build Back Better social funding proposal violated Senate rules, making even limited reform less likely.

They finished the pilgrimage at St. Peter’s Church, 110 W. Madison St., where members of the Franciscan community welcomed them. However, unlike past years, the pilgrims could not come in for a fiesta because of COVID-19 precautions.

This year the posada began at 11 a.m., unlike its usual 7 a.m. start time, to coincide with a similar pilgrimage in the Archdiocese of New York, one of four other dioceses to participate in the National Pastoral Migratoria, which focuses on immigrant-to-immigrant ministry.