Manchester Bishop Peter Libasci spent an hour visiting immigrants detained at the Strafford County Jail in Dover on Monday.
The decision to visit the jail came after the Bishop met with a parish in Manchester on Sunday with many Hispanic congregants. That Parish, St Anne-St. Augustin, had sought to protect undocumented immigrants living in the neighborhood by proclaiming itself a, quote, “sanctuary church.”
The Bishop responded last month with a letter urging Catholic churches against such proclamations.
The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency houses about 100 immigration detainees each day at the jail in Dover.