As World Refugee Day approaches on June 20, Bishop Michael Pham of San Diego has issued a strong call for solidarity.
Recently appointed by Pope Leo XIV, Bishop Pham is urging priests, deacons, and pastoral leaders across the diocese to accompany asylum seekers to their immigration court hearings on that day, according to the Latin Times.
In a statement co-signed by Reverends Ramón Bejarano and Felipe Pulido, the three faith leaders announced that a group of clergy will gather outside the San Diego federal courthouse from 7 to 10 a.m. as a public sign of support for migrants.
They described the migrants’ situation as a “difficult predicament,” noting that many are summoned to court only to face immediate deportation.
“Even if our presence doesn’t change the outcome,” the letter states, “it still affirms something essential: immigrants are treated with greater dignity simply because we are there.”
Following the hearings, the group of religious leaders plans to hold a press conference to deliver a clear message to the broader public: people of faith stand alongside immigrants and refugees.
This initiative carries particular weight coming from Bishop Pham, who knows the immigrant experience firsthand.
He fled Vietnam at the age of 13 in 1980 with his older sister and younger brother. The siblings spent time in a refugee camp in Malaysia before being resettled by a family in Minnesota in 1981. His family was reunited in 1983, and they later moved to San Diego in 1985, reports The Latin Times.
Although the Catholic Church has a long history of supporting immigrants, this action—escorting migrants to court—is a new and symbolic gesture of pastoral accompaniment.
Bishop Pham was named head of the Diocese of San Diego last month and will be officially installed on July 17. He will become the first Vietnamese American to lead a U.S. Catholic diocese.
“I am deeply grateful to Pope Leo XIV for entrusting me with this part of the Lord’s vineyard,” Bishop Pham said in a statement. “This appointment has special meaning for me, as I consider myself a son of this diocese. It is a profound honor to serve ‘my home,’ the place where I received my calling to the priesthood more than 31 years ago. My ministry has been deeply shaped and nurtured here.”
Through this June 20 initiative, Bishop Pham hopes to awaken the moral conscience of the faithful and highlight the Gospel’s call to stand with the most vulnerable—at a time when the United States is undergoing a harsh new immigration crackdown under the Trump 2.0 administration.
Many reports have surfaced of legal immigrants with no criminal record being deported under the government’s increasingly aggressive policies.
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