Catholic News Service published briefs on the following topics: Immigration arrests of Chaldean Christians in Michigan; Injunction on travel ban upheld, and James Comey visits father’s New Jersey parish.

Chaldean Catholic bishop calls ICE raid, arrests 'painful' for community
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (CNS) -- When U.S. immigration agents rounded up and arrested Chaldean Christians in southeast Michigan June 11, it was "a very strange and painful day for our community in America," said the head of the Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle, based in Southfield. "With the many Chaldeans that were awakened by Immigration Customs Enforcement agents and consequently picked up for deportation, there is a lot of confusion and anger," Bishop Francis Y. Kalabat said in a statement posted on the eparchy's website. News reports said about 40 people were arrested near or at their homes and were put on buses June 12 to be taken to a federal detention center in Youngstown, Ohio. The same day, a rally outside the Mother of God Chaldean Catholic Church in Southfield drew dozens of people, many of whom said the federal government's actions had left them sad and frustrated. In his statement, Bishop Kalabat said the eparchy was contacting and working with "many agencies to try to stop this bleeding," including the U.S. State Department, members of Congress, the Iraqi Embassy, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and "any agency that could file an injunction to keep anyone from being deported.”

9th Circuit Court of Appeals upholds injunction on Trump's travel ban
SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) -- The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied a White House request to overturn an injunction blocking President Donald Trump's executive order banning travel from six Muslim-majority countries. A three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based court ruled June 12 that the administration failed to show that barring citizens from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen was necessary to protect the United States. The panel also said that the presidential order violated an immigration law that prohibits discrimination based on nationality. The bishop who chairs the U.S. bishops' Committee on Migration welcomed the ruling. "Upholding the injunction will allow us to continue welcoming and serving refugees fleeing persecution," Bishop Joe S. Vasquez of Austin, Texas, said in a statement June 13. "Together with my brother bishops, we believe it is possible to simultaneously provide for the security of our country and have a humane refugee policy that upholds our national heritage and moral responsibility." 

James Comey makes appearance with his father at New Jersey parish
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Days after the dramatic testimony of his firing and dealings with U.S. President Donald Trump, former FBI Director James Comey made an appearance at a Catholic Church on Holy Trinity Sunday, accompanying his father to Mass at a New Jersey parish. The (Bergen) Record newspaper, via its website www.northjersey.com, released video of Comey and his wife accompanying his father to Guardian Angel Catholic Church in Allendale, a borough of Bergen County in northern New Jersey. Though Comey did not respond to questions from a reporter outside the church, the video shows a group of teens outside Guardian Angel Church June 11 introducing themselves to the former FBI man who was fired by Trump May 9. The teens stop to pose for photos with Comey, who keeps an eye on his father heading for a car using a walker. The newspaper story said Comey regularly attended the Allendale Catholic church when he was a boy, but the United Methodist Church claims him and his family as members. In a 2013 news release, the United Methodist Church said the Comeys are active members of the Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist Church in Washington and the former director and his wife, Patrice, have taught Sunday school.