Laramie Catholics wrestle with immigration compassion, deportation politics after bishop letter

St. Paul’s Newman Center in Laramie became a small but pointed test of how Catholics respond when church teaching collides with deportation politics. Parishioners at the University of Wyoming ministry and town parish were grappling with Bishop Steven R. Biegler’s call for compassion on immigration, while also facing the realities of a national push for mass deportations that has landed close to home in Albany County.

Biegler, the only Catholic bishop in Wyoming, issued his pastoral letter on migration, “Be a Merciful Neighbor,” on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 12, from Our Lady of the Mountains Catholic Church in Jackson. The letter was addressed to the immigrant community, the Catholic community and “all people of goodwill” in Wyoming, and it tied the debate directly to the state’s common good. Biegler said doing nothing was not an option, and he included immigrant testimonies and reflection questions meant to spur parish discussion rather than a one-time statement.

That message followed a national escalation inside the Catholic hierarchy. In November 2025, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved a special immigration message by a vote of 216-5, with 3 abstentions, the first special message the bishops had issued in 12 years. The bishops said they were disturbed by fear, profiling, detention conditions, family separation and threats to spaces such as houses of worship, schools and hospitals. Pope Leo XIV later called the bishops’ immigration message “a very important statement” and urged Catholics and people of goodwill to listen carefully to it.

In Laramie, the issue has a local face because St. Paul’s Newman Center serves students, faculty and staff at the University of Wyoming as well as Laramie residents. That mix has made the church a place where immigration policy is not abstract. Parishioners trying to reconcile Christian convictions with current enforcement debates are encountering neighbors, classmates and fellow worshippers whose lives are touched by the issue.

The Diocese of Cheyenne’s structure also heightens the weight of Biegler’s guidance. With only one bishop overseeing Catholics statewide, his letter carries unusual authority for parishes from Cheyenne to Jackson and Laramie. For Albany County Catholics, the question now is not only how to interpret church teaching, but how that teaching should shape parish life, public witness and the way a faith community responds when deportation politics reach the pews.