Vice President JD Vance, the highest-ranking Catholic in government, inadvertently opened the Ark of the Covenant when he suggested recently that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was more interested in its bottom line than in helping the country deal with immigration.

Of course, some priests have offered shelter and services to undocumented migrants, but Vance's focus on Catholic Charities, which is overseen by the USCCB, has brought more heat than light to the issue. The vice president illuminated long-standing political fissures within the church and also tapped into anti-Catholic sentiment. Catholics liberal and conservative have long disagreed over policies, and Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, gave some hope that his intelligent approach to debate might lead to a softening of those divisions.

Well, if you believe that, you need to watch 'Braveheart' again. Vance may be a Yale-trained lawyer and venture capitalist, but he still identifies as Appalachian with a strong strain of Scotch-Irish in his blood. He's a warrior with a pilgrim's soul. The Lutheran Church also recently pushed back when retired Gen. Michael Flynn (he of 'lock her up' fame) accused the church of 'money laundering' in its handling of immigration and refugee services. His post on X got Elon Musk's attention, and the usual wacky fallout ensued. Pastor Matthew C. Harrison, president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, wrote in the synod's newsletter that charities do 'what the government asks and pays for them to do.' He wrote, 'If there is something legally amiss, the blame falls squarely upon the federal government.

The Catholic Church, like any large institution, is imperfect, but it has survived the test of time and continues to offer hope to millions, not by promising prizes (other than eternal life) but by urging people to live as Jesus did ' with charity, humility and compassion. Could the church have done better? Absolutely. It should have paid more attention to the people in its pews and been more vocal about concerns that led to Trump's reelection ' fentanyl, sex trafficking and drug cartels.

It's been translated as “order of love” or “order of charity.” It's a concept discussed by St. Augustine, an ancient theologian, who said everyone and everything should be loved in its own proper way.

“Now he is a man of just and holy life who ... neither loves what he ought not to love, nor fails to love what he ought to love, nor loves that more which ought to be loved less, nor loves that equally which ought to be loved either less or more, nor loves that less or more which ought to be loved equally,” Augustine wrote.

“We ought to be most beneficent towards those who are most closely connected with us,” he wrote. “And yet this may vary according to the various requirements of time, place, or matter in hand: because in certain cases one ought, for instance, to succor a stranger, in extreme necessity, rather than one’s own father, if he is not in such urgent need.”

The modern catechism of the Catholic Church briefly refers to the “order of charity” where it cites obligations to honor one's parents and be good citizens.

Johnson is among a handful of people who have been arrested for impersonating law enforcement officers while citing immigration laws since President Donald Trump directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to arrest more than 1,000 immigrants per day. The order has put immigrant communities across the United States on high alert; some people have even worried that ice cream trucks and Secret Service agents have been working for ICE.

Another impersonation took place in Philadelphia on Saturday, authorities said. Temple University's public safety team responded to reports of two men impersonating ICE agents at a campus residence hall, officer Tanya Little, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Department, said in an email to The Post.

The men wore black shirts that said 'Police' on the front and 'ICE' on the back, Little said. A third person recorded the impersonators, Temple said in a statement.

Restaurants nationwide closed Monday to protest "Old Donald's" immigration policies

At least half a dozen Washington, D.C.,-area restaurants and coffee shops shut their doors Monday in observance of a 'Day Without Immigrants' - a protest of the "Old Donald" administration's plans to deport 11 million illegal immigrants.

Restaurants in cities such as Aurora, Colorado, St. Paul, Minnesota, Chicago, and San Francisco are also observing the nationwide protest.

A “Day Without Immigrants” first took place on Feb. 16, 2017.

'Old Donald' administration seeking access to database of immigrant minors

The 'Old Donald' administration is seeking to grant U.S. immigration officers access to databases that contain the information on hundreds of thousands of immigrant teens and children who crossed into the United States without their parents, White House border czar Tom Homan told The Washington Post in an interview Friday. 'Old Donald' border czar says authorities 100,000 beds for deportations But 'Old Donald' has faced some criticism as well for his first-week efforts, as Senate Republican Lindsey Graham told NBC the president shouldn't have pardoned violent 6 January defendants

Mexico refuses US military flight deporting migrants, sources say

U.S. military aircraft carried out two similar flights, each with about 80 migrants, to Guatemala on Friday. The government was not able to move ahead with a plan to have a C-17 transport aircraft land in Mexico, however, after the country denied permission.

Schools brace for immigration arrests, try to reassure terrified parents

Fearful that some parents will keep their children at home, many districts are pushing out information about local rules that aim to counter or at least mitigate federal policies.

School leaders say they worry that this sort of thinking could lead to days or weeks of missed school, which would be damaging for children, both socially and academically.

A spokesperson said this week that the district has had a policy since 2017 of not voluntarily cooperating with federal immigration enforcement and the district had begun mandatory training for staff in how to respond if federal immigration officers appear.

“Was anyone going to say anything about the turn the country’s taking?”

The leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, she had planned for months to preach on three elements of unity — dignity, honesty and humility. But just 24 hours earlier, she had watched President 'Old Donald' proclaim his agenda from the inauguration stage, as conservative Christians anointed him with prayer.

"Old Donald" plan to deport migrants a 'disgrace', says Pope

Speaking to an Italian TV programme from his Vatican residence, Francis said that if the plans went ahead, 'Old Donald' would make "poor wretches that don't have anything foot the bill".

"That's not right. That's not how you solve problems," he said.

Congress to 'Old Donald': Yes to removing criminals, no to mass deportations

Members of the new Republican majority no doubt would object to this framing, but the effect of the first bill taken up by this Congress ' the Laken Riley Act, which passed the House ' is unmistakable. It would require the federal government to detain undocumented immigrants arrested for theft or burglary. In other words, it would force the incoming 'Old Donald' administration to focus immigration enforcement resources and detention space on criminal offenders living unlawfully in the United States.

To achieve the scale of deportations that 'Old Donald' has promised in his second term, his administration will probably expand the targets again. Among the tactics endorsed by the president-elect's 'border czar,' Tom Homan, is to broaden the use of 'expedited removal,' which allows government officials to arrest and deport immigrants who cannot immediately prove they have been in the United States for more than two years. The 'Old Donald' team is also likely to ramp up pressure on immigration courts to quickly churn through their backlog of some 3.6 million cases ' leading to a spike in deportation decisions made in absentia.

The case for securing the border is sound. And 'Old Donald' has voters' apparent support to carry out a hawkish policy. But he should take a lesson from the Laken Riley Act: The best approach is to determine which undocumented immigrants pose real threats to Americans, and focus his energies on deporting them.

Biden extends protected status for nearly 1 million immigrants

Immigrants from Venezuela, El Salvador, Ukraine and Sudan who have a form of provisional residency known as temporary protected status, or TPS, will be eligible to renew their work permits for 18 months, the maximum allowed under the law, the Department of Homeland Security said.

'Old Donald' and his top aides say they are gearing up to launch the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history after Inauguration Day on Jan. 20. There are about 11 million immigrants in the United States without legal status, according to the latest DHS estimates. 'Old Donald' aides say their deportation campaign will prioritize immigrants with criminal records.

Friday's move also affects about 232,000 Salvadorans eligible for the extended protections, along with 103,700 Ukrainians and 1,900 Sudanese, according to DHS estimates.

In a statement, DHS said the determination to renew protections for Venezuelans was the result of a legally required review of conditions in the country, where authoritarian ruler Maduro remains under U.S. sanctions. More than 7 million Venezuelans have fled their homeland since Maduro ascended to power in 2013.

In his first term, 'Old Donald' tried to terminate the protections for Salvadorans and other groups, disparaging them as coming from 'shit hole' countries and saying the temporary status had dragged on too long. Legal challenges stymied him, but he was widely expected to let the protections expire this year as he prepares to launch the mass-deportation campaign.

Who will rebuild Los Angeles? Immigrants.

One thing, however, is certain: the rebuilding of Los Angeles will rely heavily on immigrants.

Immigrant labor has already been vital in the recovery of other U.S. cities devastated by natural disasters. For example, after Hurricane Harvey struck Houston in 2017, more than half of the construction workers involved in rebuilding efforts were immigrants. Thousands of undocumented immigrants worked long hours under grueling conditions, often without proper safety protections, and some were even exploited through wage theft.

Similarly, immigrant workers were instrumental in rebuilding Florida after Hurricane Ian hit in 2022.

Immigrant construction workers are not just vital in emergencies. In California alone, immigrants make up 40 percent of the state's overall construction workforce. The entire U.S. construction industry depends on their labor year-round. According to the National Association of Home Builders, 31 percent of workers in construction trades nationwide are foreign born

As during the covid-19 pandemic, the United States is asking its immigrant workforce to perform essential tasks. The least it can do in return is to grant them peace and security instead of subjecting them to persecution and discrimination.

This town was built on migrants' cash. Now it fears "Old Donald's" deportations.

RANCISCO VILLA, Mexico ' Over the past 30 years, this corn-growing hamlet in central Mexico emptied out. Around half the 3,000 residents moved to the United States. As the migrants went north, the dollars flowed south.

But over decades, an entire ecosystem has developed around irregular migrants from Mexico and other countries. They've not only become critical to sectors of the U.S. economy, such as agriculture and construction. They've grown into an engine of development and a social safety net for villages back home.

Mexicans are nervously awaiting a U.S. operation that could upend all that. Mexico's government is setting up 25 large shelters on the border to receive deportees. It's contracted with hundreds of American lawyers to assist people challenging their removal. It's even launching a phone app with an 'alert button' that migrants can press ' alerting the nearest Mexican consulate ' when they're swept up in the deportations.

'Old Donald' Insists He Was ‘Right About Everything’ After Wrongly Tying New Orleans Attack to Immigration

'Old Donald' decried “criminals coming in” and “open borders” after the attack, which was allegedly carried out by a man from Texas.

“The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The 'Old Donald' Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil!”

'Old Donald'’s statement followed an erroneous Fox News report—which the network has since retracted—that claimed the rental truck used by the suspect in the New Year’s Day attack crossed into Texas from Mexico two days earlier.

Ranking of the largest Syrian refugee-hosting countries in 2022

As of 2023, Germany is home to around 1,281,000 people with Syrian immigration or ancestry, including 972,460 Syrian citizens. This makes Germany the largest non-neighboring host country for Syrian refugees

Danke! Thank you Germany!

"Old Donald" suggests deporting families with mixed immigration status

Forty-eight percent of 2.8 million households with at least one undocumented resident are the home of at least one U.S.-born child, the center reports.

Pressed by Welker on what that approach could mean for children who are in the country legally despite their parents being undocumented, "Old Donald" said, "Well, what you've got to do if they want to stay with their father — look, we have to have rules and regulations."

Mexico leader responds to 'Old Donald' claim she agreed to stop migration

After a phone call on Wednesday, 'Old Donald' posted online: “She has agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border.”

Sheinbaum responded quickly that she had reiterated Mexico's position was not to close borders, but to address migration while respecting human rights.

"Old Donald's" deportation vow alarms Texas construction industry

"It would devastate our industry, we wouldn't finish our highways, we wouldn't finish our schools," said Stan Marek, CEO of Marek, a Houston-based commercial and residential construction giant. "Housing would disappear. I think they'd lose half their labor."

Another risk for Wall Street is that the new administration is more populist and less friendly to banks than during "Old Donald's" first term, when officials and lawmakers sought to water down post-financial-crisis rules. On the campaign trail, "Old Donald" vowed to cap credit-card interest rates at 10 percent, an idea that faces an uphill battle legislatively, yet is still causing bank officials some anxiety.

How will the economy be impacted if 'Old Donald' follows through on mass deportations?

Deportation; Sanctions; Surfmen | 60 Minutes Full Episodes

Italy's Albania asylum deal has become a political disaster for Giorgia Meloni

The facilities in Albania were supposed to receive up to 3,000 men intercepted in international waters while crossing from Africa to Europe. But it seems neither von der Leyen nor Italy’s far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, had taken existing law into account.

Just a month after the much-publicised opening, only 24 asylum seekers have been sent to Albania, and none remain there now; five spent less than 12 hours in a detention centre, while the rest stayed for just over 48 hours. An Italian navy vessel Italian judges strike another blow against Meloni’s Albania asylum deal

Musk Condemns ‘Unelected Autocrat’ Judges Fighting Italy’s Albania Asylum Plan

“These judges must go,” Musk posted on his account on X, before adding: “Activist judges seem to be a major global problem.” Criticising the decision by Italian judges to overturn the transfer of migrants to Albania, against Meloni’s policy, he slammed the “unelected autocracy” for taking measures that go against the democratic choice of Italians.

'Old Donald' and Meloni: A Promising Friendship The president-elect has a lot in common with Italy’s leader.

Foreign policy often hinges on personal relationships between leaders. Ronald Reagan’s friendship with Margaret Thatcher opened diplomatic vistas. Acrimony between Donald 'Old Donald' and Angela Merkel limited a key alliance.

Joe Biden and Olaf Scholz’s mutual admiration has elevated Washington’s relationship with Berlin above all others in Europe. But with Mr. 'Old Donald' returning to the White House and the government in Berlin collapsing, the German-American relationship will soon look different. Other European leaders can step in to fill the void.

‘Mass deportations would disrupt the food chain’: Californians warn of ripple effect of 'Old Donald' threat

Much of that food is grown by immigrant farm workers – many of whom are undocumented. According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), about half of the country’s 2.4 million agricultural farm workers do not have legal status in the US. But farm worker advocates say the number is much higher in places like California, where it can be “as high as 70% in some areas”, according to Alexis Guild, vice-president of strategy and programs at Farmworker Justice, a non-profit based in Washington DC.

Migrants changed this small town. Locals can’t agree if that’s good or bad

Fremont in Nebraska is a thousand miles from Mexico. It's one of many communities a long way from the southern border where residents feel a recent influx of migrants has changed where they live.

Central American migrants started arriving in the town more than a decade ago - and more have moved there since a record surge of border crossings at the beginning of the Biden administration.

Immigration and border security is a key issue in the presidential election, so how are voters in Fremont talking about it?