A few weeks ago, while at Sunday Mass, I heard the hymn “The Lord Hears the Cry of the Poor.” It repeats a line from Psalm 34 which is a part of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh). With very minor variations, the Hebrew Bible is what Christians call the Old Testament.
It is a haunting hymn and you need to listen to it (click the title) The Lord Hears the Cry of the Poor. So, after listening to the hymn, a number of thoughts occurred in no particular order. First, the Lord hears the cries of the poor because there are so many of them. Second, wouldn’t it be better to reduce the number of the poor and cut down on the crying. Third, what have I done about it?
The shareholders of Tesla did not hear “the cries of the poor” but did hear the cries of the world’s richest man and just approved a $1 trillion pay package for Elon Musk. Not bad; maybe he can distribute some of that bounty to people at traffic lights asking for money.
As an aside, imagine it is you at the traffic light and you have a $20 bill, a $10 bill, a $5 dollar bill and two $1 dollar bills. Do you stare straight ahead or do you make a contribution and, if so, what is the contribution? Now imagine that the person holding the sign is you. What do you do?
Zohran Mandami just ran away with the election for Mayor of New York City. His campaign promised free childcare, free bus rides, a freeze on rent controlled apartments and a pilot program to establish 5 city owned grocery stores, one in each borough. He was not responding to the “cries of the poor” but rather to New York City citizens who were having a hard time making ends meet.
How to pay for it all? Tax the rich and the corporations to the tune of not less than $9 billion a year. His voters would not be taxed but would get all the benefits. He takes pride in being a “democratic socialist” and, in person, appears very engaging with a good sense of humor. But it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that the “rich” will be making plans to set up legal residence elsewhere like, say, Connecticut, New Jersey or South Florida.
Margaret Thatcher had a withering quote about socialism. “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
But what about the cries of the poor? Most organized religions endorse two related principles: take care of the poor and welcome the stranger.
For example, one of the five Pillars of Islam is called Zakat which requires observant Muslims to share their wealth with the poor in their community.
The Torah, which is the part of the Hebrew Bible that contains God’s explicit instructions, requires that “strangers” be treated with kindness and respect. “The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Leviticus 19:33 to 34). The Hebrew word for stranger (ger) appears no less than 36 times in the Torah.
So how are we greeting “strangers” today. Too often, they are being greeted by armed ICE agents in tactical gear and masks who have the right to basically stop anyone if there is a “reasonable suspicion” that the person is not a citizen. What is “reasonable suspicion”? Like many things, it is very subjective and since most of the undocumented people in the United States came from South America, it may be “reasonable suspicion” if two people are on the street speaking in Spanish.
Why don’t we hold ICE agents to the same standards as we do the police. They should wear name tags, ditch the masks and have body cameras with audio features so that a judge could determine if there was “reasonable suspicion” for the arrest in the first place.
The original explanation for increased ICE enforcement was to get the violent criminals out of the country and to find the law breakers and give them the heave-ho. But consider the case of this “violent” law breaker.
Melissa Tran is the mother of four children and with her husband runs a nail salon in Hagerstown, Maryland. In deep blue Maryland, Hagerstown is a deep red place. Melissa has been a fixture in the Hagerstown community for over 20 years. She is the mom who attends all the swim meets, recitals and sports bumper stickers celebrating her children’s performance in school. She is a fixture in the Hagerstown community and red Hagerstown turned out in force when ICE came calling.
In 2001 she pled guilty to a felony relating to the stealing of $30,000 from her employer. She served four months in prison, paid back the money and began her second life starting with obtaining a college degree. The immigration judge had ordered her to be deported to Vietnam from whence she came at age 11. But Vietnam would not take her and that remained the same for 25 years. However, recently Vietnam has indicated that they would take her. So, in a few days, off she goes, leaving behind her husband, her four children and a prosperous business.
ICE held her in detention for 151 days at three different far away locations until a judge ordered that she be returned to her family because ICE had not made any provisions for her deportation. That has now changed.
Melissa Tran is a “stranger.” “The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love (the stranger) as yourself, for you were once strangers in the land of Egypt.”
There are many thousands like Melissa Tran living here. In fact, there are 51 million immigrants who are not citizens, but are in the country by virtue of a green card, a similar exemption or illegally. The best estimate is that approximately 18 million of the 51 million are here illegally. But all of them are at risk as evidenced in the New York Times story of November 21, 2025 (“How Non Citizens, Anxious Under Trump, Are Altering Their Lives”)
Isn’t Melissa Tan a person who deserves a second chance? She has proven herself over the last 25 years and tearing her away from her family with children ranging from 4 to 20 is unnecessarily cruel. And while we are on the subject of cruelty, the Administration plans to send Kilmar Abrego Garcia who has been a pain in the Trump Administration’s ass since it wrongfully deported him to El Salvador when then set off a string of court cases, including the one in the Supreme Court, in which most of the judges have questioned the government’s bona fides. The latest plan is to send him to Africa, and not to a Spanish speaking country, presumably to show everybody who’s boss, especially someone who has given the boss judicial black eye after judicial black eye.
The United States Conference of Catholic bishops issue a “Special Message” on November 12, 2025, which was passed by a vote of 216 in favor, 5 against and 3 abstentions. President Trump was not mentioned but the message was clear and unmistakable.
We are disturbed when we see among our people, a climate of fear and anxiety about questions of profiling and immigration enforcement. We are saddened by… the vilification of immigrants.
We are troubled by threats against the sanctity of houses of worship and the special nature of hospitals and schools. We are grieved when we meet parents who fear being detained when taking their children to school and when we try to console family members who have already been separated from their loved ones.
The priority of the Lord … is for those who are most vulnerable: the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the stranger.
We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people. We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement.
I suspect that most non-believers may agree that we need to assist the poor and welcome the stranger. For believers, it is a religious obligation.
Assist the poor/welcome the stranger.
Boy have we screwed that up.