On July 3, 2000 Tamayo was appointed as bishop of the newly founded Roman Catholic Diocese of Laredo in Webb County in South Texas. On August 9, 2000, he was installed as its first bishop. Tamayo is a member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. On September 10, 2008, Tamayo called upon the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush to halt work-place raids in search of illegal immigrants. "We have respect for our enforcement personnel, but these worksite raids are only pitting human beings against each other. We must abandon the raids." In March 2015, Tamayo was among eighty religious figures who signed a letter to President Barack H. Obama asking that the government halt the practice of detaining families who have come into the United States illegally. He visited a detention center in Dilley between San Antonio and Laredo and expressed concern for the women being held there, some for a considerable period of time.
Controversies
In March 2016, Tamayo halted the construction of a Catholic student center at Texas A&M International University in Laredo. The Brothers of St. John, key sponsors of the $4 million-plus project, held a groundbreaking ceremony in November 2013. Tamayo did not attend the groundbreaking; nor did he offer an explanation for his opposition to the project, even to TAMIU President Ray Keck. Hundreds of thousands of preliminary funds have already been spent on the project, which has been on the drawing board for a decade. Glen S. Jackson of Alexandria questions Bishop Tamayo's opposition to the student center, which he said has caused a "hostile atmosphere" in the Laredo diocese. No other college or university has faced such a denial. Jackson claims that 99 percent of the clergy in the Laredo diocese favors the project. Meanwhile, Father Robert L. Kincl of Hutto, north of Austin, a former judicial vicar for the Laredo diocese, has announced that he will deliver some thirty letters opposing Tamayo's position on the student center to the post office at The Vatican. In another controversy, when a priest was arrested in 2002 in Laredo on rape charges from New York City, the district attorney of Kings County, said that the diocese under Tamayo was "less than satisfactory" in cooperation with law enforcement. Tamayo did not explain the circumstances under which the priest had left the Laredo diocese.
