Ignatian Migration Dialogue | Religious Liberty

02 December 2025 at 12:00pm
Virtual via Zoom

How Do Immigration Policies Affect Religious Freedom and Pastoral Life?

 

December 2 | Noon ET

Join Miguel Naranjo, Brett Hoover, and Kelly Ryan for a conversation on how immigration enforcement policies shape the practice of faith in immigrant communities. The session will look at how fear of immigration enforcement can keep people from attending religious services and how these policies affect the ability of religious leaders and parishioners to offer support to migrant families. Drawing on pastoral experience and ongoing work in immigrant ministries, the speakers will offer grounded insights into the ethical and practical challenges facing religious communities today.

Key Discussion Points

  • The role of parish in the life of immigrant and mixed status families and the scale of the impact on American Catholics of mass deportation policies
  • How immigration enforcement policies and fear influence religious participation and access to parish life.
  • The effects on the parish members who are supporting their fellow immigrant and mixed-status family parishioners.
  • Religious worker shortages:  how immigration visa policy changes are limiting the number of religious (priests, nuns, deacons, and brothers) able to come to or extend their service in U.S. ministry in parishes, hospitals and prisons.
  • Pastoral experiences from ministries accompanying multicultural and immigrant communities.

Speakers

Kelly Ryan

Kelly Ryan is the President of Jesuit Refugee Service/USA and a seasoned diplomat, attorney, and migration-policy expert with more than 30 years of experience in refugee protection, asylum law, and international human rights.

She previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau for Population, Refugees, and Migration, and held senior leadership roles at the Department of Homeland Security. Ryan holds degrees from Tulane, Georgetown, and Cambridge University.

Miguel Naranjo

Miguel Naranjo is the Director of the Religious Immigration Services section of CLINIC. He leads a group of immigration attorneys who assist more than 170 archdioceses, dioceses and religious communities throughout the U.S. in bringing international priests, brothers, sisters, novices, seminarians and other religious workers into the U.S. to serve the church.

Naranjo joined CLINIC in 2006 and has been practicing immigration law since 2002. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

Dr. Brett C. Hoover

Dr. Brett C. Hoover is Professor of Practical Theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where he regularly teaches on immigration and the Catholic Church. He is the author of Immigration and Faith: Cultural, Biblical, and Theological Narratives (Paulist, 2021) and The Shared Parish: Latinos, Anglos, and the Future of US Catholicism (NYU Press, 2014). Dr. Hoover recently authored a timely and relevant article for Commonweal magazine titled “Empty Pews.”

Why Attend?

Across Catholic parishes, schools, and ministries, many communities are walking with immigrants who face daily barriers to safety, stability, and belonging. Understanding how immigration policy intersects with religious liberty is essential for anyone accompanying or ministering to immigrant families.


This session will help you:

  • Better understand the growing pastoral and legal challenges faith communities face.

  • Identify how enforcement pressures shape religious participation and access to ministry.

  • Explore emerging ethical questions for leaders who balance policy expectations with mission-driven accompaniment.

  • Learn practical insights from experts actively serving immigrant and mixed-status communities.

  • Strengthen your ability—and your parish or institution’s ability—to offer compassionate, informed support.