A sudden procedural change in how the federal government processes green cards for foreign-born religious workers, together with historic highs in numbers of illegal border crossers, means that thousands of clergy like him are losing the ability to remain in this country.
"We were right on the edge of becoming permanent residents, and boom, this changed," Colombia-born Castillo said as his wife rocked their 7-month-old boy, a U.S. citizen by birth. "We have done everything correctly, from here onward we believe that God will work a miracle. We don't have any other option."To become permanent U.S. residents, which can eventually lead to citizenship, immigrants apply for green cards, generally through U.S. family members or employers.
This change means that only applications filed before January 2019 are currently being processed, moving forward the Central American minors by a few months but giving clergy with expiring visas, like Castillo, no option but to leave their U.S. congregations behind. That's likely to dissuade religious organizations from hiring foreign workers precisely when they're most needed because of the growing demand for leaders of immigrant congregations who can speak languages other than English and understand other cultures.
Those from religious orders with vows of poverty, like Catholic nuns and Buddhist monks, are especially hard hit, because most other employment visa categories require employers to show they're paying foreign workers prevailing wages. Since they're getting no wages, they don't qualify. But realistic options are so few that the American Immigration Lawyers Association and faith leaders, like Chicago's Catholic cardinal and coalitions of evangelical pastors, have lobbied the Biden administration and Congress to fix the problem.
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