Rhina Guidos

After international outcry following moves that consolidated power over El Salvador into the hands of the president, the Central American country's Catholic bishops expressed worry and urged lawmakers to guide citizens into a "truly democratic state."

An expert witness testified to the "illegal" presence of a high-ranking U.S. military adviser who may have known about the plot to kill nearly 1,000 civilians who perished in El Mozote, El Salvador, nearly 40 years ago.

At the 51st annual Washington Conference on the Americas, May 4, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said four migrant families who remained separated under a Trump administration policy would be among the first to be reunited in early May by the Biden administration.

The Biden administration announced April 30 it would stop paying for construction projects along the southern border between Mexico and the U.S., which were being funded with money originally designated for the military.

Lawmakers aligned with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele voted May 1 to get rid of five of the country's top judges and attorney general, giving Bukele, in essence, absolute power over the three branches of government.

A recent analysis by The New York Times found evidence for what many Catholic organizations and other entities warned about at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States—the faster spread of the coronavirus among those detained in facilities for immigration violations.

The church is helping families in El Salvador who lost loved ones 40 years ago during the civil war. Fr. Manuel Acosta, is head of the Commission to Search for Persons Disappeared in the Context of the Armed Conflict.

As the U.S. marks Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in April, the Diocese of San Jose, California, issued a statement March 29 in support of those communities, given a spate of crimes throughout the country targeting them.

Pro-immigrant groups applauded a March 8 decision by the Biden administration to protect some 320,000 Venezuelans in the United States under a temporary immigration program.

Early projections of results of a Feb. 28 election in El Salvador show the conservative New Ideas (Nuevas Ideas) party en route to winning a majority of seats in the national legislative assembly, giving its founder, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, what amounts to absolute power, if lawmakers grant it.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador began bilateral cooperation talks March 1 with humor, a focus on limiting immigration to the U.S. and talk about Our Lady of Guadalupe.

President Joe Biden announced Feb. 24 a reversal of a 2020 proclamation by the Trump administration that sought to keep those applying for permanent residency cards, popularly known as green cards, out of the country because of the pandemic.

The Biden administration's U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, introduced in Congress Feb. 18, seeks to legalize some 11 million unauthorized immigrants currently in the U.S., with a special focus on reunification of families.

A Catholic panel analyzing a path forward during moments of strife or of social sin said the only way to move ahead as a society toward healing is to recognize the damage done to a person or communities, to lay the truth out for everyone to see.

El Salvador's bishops urged citizens to show faith, hard work and solidarity — not the violence on display during one of the most contentious political campaigns in the country's recent history.

In November, President-elect Joe Biden said that he would be heading in a dramatically different direction than the Trump administration on refugee admissions. On Feb. 4, Biden delivered.

Policy watchers expect a more immigrant-friendly path forward as well as help for some families adversely affected by Trump administration policies, but the specifics are not yet clear.

Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chávez asked the country to pray "for liberation from Satan" Feb. 1 after violence erupted following a political rally late Jan. 31 in the capital, San Salvador. At least two people died and several were injured.

The archbishop of San Salvador reversed course and said Jan. 20 he would allow investigators to view church archives related to a wartime massacre.

The 46th president of the United States along with fellow Catholics and other people of goodwill began the latest chapter in the nation's political history with a Mass ahead of the presidential inauguration.