Several Catholic leaders, including Pope Leo XIV, have sharply criticized President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement, and the timing is raising eyebrows as well as border czar Tom Homan’s ire.
It’s worth noting that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and affiliated groups had been receiving hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to help resettle immigrants in the United States. When the Trump administration moved to shut off that funding stream, the criticism seemed to escalate.
There’s also a big a disconnect between the Vatican’s stance and conditions at the U.S. border. Vatican City maintains strict entry and immigration controls, enforced in part by the Swiss Guard, while also being critical of Trump’s equally strict enforcement of existing immigration laws.
Tom Homan, a longtime immigration official and practicing Catholic, says the Church needs to mind its own business.
? WOW. Border Czar Tom Homan just gave the PERFECT response to Pope Leo
"I'm a lifelong Catholic. I wish they'd STAY OUT of immigration, they don't know what they're talking about."
"Because if they wore my shoes for 40 years, and talked to a 9-year-old girl that got r*ped… pic.twitter.com/9KBT1Pbiiu
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 14, 2026
“I’m not going to speak for the President, I’m speaking for myself, a lifelong Catholic,” Homan said. “I would say, stay out of immigration. They don’t know what they’re talking about,” he said this week.
“Because if they wore my shoes for 40 years, and talked to a nine-year-old girl that got raped multiple times, or stood in the back of a tractor-trailer with 19 dead aliens at my feet including a five-year-old boy that baked to death, if they understood the atrocities that happen on the open border, I think their opinion would change,” Homan continued.
“And I welcome a discussion with any of them, because they don’t understand illegal immigration is not a victimless crime. Where President Trump had the most secure border in the lifetime of this nation, right now, lives are being saved. He’s saving thousands of lives a year because he has a secure border,” Homan added. “Human traffickers are out of business, right? The cartels are going bankrupt because of that secure border. I wish they’d understand that. Because if they did, I think they’d have a different opinion.”
He’s spot-on, by the way.
Supporters of stricter enforcement also point to teachings in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which state that nations have a right to regulate migration based on their capacity to receive newcomers, while immigrants are expected to respect the laws and cultural norms of their host country.
Not only that, but American taxpayers have spent hundreds of billions taking in and taking care of illegal immigrants and their children. We’ve let in Chinese spies and terrorists under brainless Biden and it’s dangerous to our country.
Tom Homan has continually made the case that illegal immigration leads to crime & exploitation.
It’s not about keeping ppl out so they can’t share in your surplus.
It’s about preventing drugs, trafficking and crime for the good of all.
I hope Catholic leaders DO talk to him. https://t.co/Jnnl1jWu7V
— Jackie Chea ?? (@Fair_and_Biased) April 14, 2026
We’re not going to hold our breath that’ll happen.
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