‘Catholic Church Is Wrong’ on Illegal Immigration, Homan Says

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said it opposes the ‘indiscriminate mass deportation’ of people.

White House border czar Tom Homan speaks to reporters at the White House on April 15, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The Catholic Church’s criticism of the Trump administration’s policies regarding illegal immigration is “wrong,” border czar Tom Homan told reporters on Nov. 14.

“Secure border saves lives. I wish the Catholic Church would understand that. We have the right to secure our borders like they have the right to secure their facility,” Homan said.

“You can’t enter their facility without getting arrested. Matter of fact, the penalties for entering their facilities are much worse than ours. So the Catholic Church is wrong. I’m sorry. I’m a lifelong Catholic. I’m saying it as not only a border czar. I'll say it as a Catholic. I think they need to spend time fixing the Catholic Church.”

Homan’s remarks were in response to a “special message” issued on Nov. 12 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) saying the group was “disturbed” by the climate of fear and anxiety regarding questions of profiling and immigration enforcement among the church’s followers.

Homan said that under the Biden administration, more than 4,000 illegal immigrants died during their journey to the United States, which is a “historic record.” Meanwhile, more than a quarter of a million Americans died from fentanyl, which is also a “historic record,” he said.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 270,000 people are estimated to have died by fentanyl overdose between 2021 and 2024.

In its message, USCCB said it opposes the “indiscriminate mass deportation” of people and prays for ending the “dehumanizing rhetoric and violence” aimed at illegal immigrants and law enforcement personnel.

“We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care. We lament that some immigrants in the United States have arbitrarily lost their legal status,” it said.

“We are troubled by threats against the sanctity of houses of worship and the special nature of hospitals and schools. We are grieved when we meet parents who fear being detained when taking their children to school and when we try to console family members who have already been separated from their loved ones.”

USCCB said that although nations have a responsibility to regulate their borders, they must also set up a just and orderly immigration system in service of the common good.

Homan said the organization’s views sent the wrong message about the rule of law. He also noted the price illegal immigrants have to pay in order to make the journey to the United States.

“So, according to them, the message we should send to the whole world is: ‘If you cross the border illegally, which is a crime, don’t worry about it. If you get ordered removed by federal judge after due process, don’t worry about it because there shouldn’t be mass deportations,’” he said.

“If that’s the message we send to the whole world, people are still going to put themselves in harm’s way to come to the greatest nation on earth. They’re going to spend their life savings to give it to a criminal cartel.”

USCCB is an assembly of bishops who seek to promote and carry on Catholic activities in the United States, including caring for illegal immigrants, according to the organization’s website.

The group’s special message was the first it had issued since 2013. The message received 216 votes in favor from conference members. Five voted against it, and three declined to vote.

The message follows Pope Leo XIV’s criticism in September of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

“Someone who says I am against abortion but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life,” Leo, the first American pope, said on Sept. 30.

During a press briefing in early October, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt countered the Pope’s comments.

“I would reject there is inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants in the United States under this administration,” she said. “There was, however, significant inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants in the previous administration as they were being trafficked and raped and beaten, and in many cases killed over our United States southern border.”

“This administration is trying to enforce our nation’s laws in the most humane way possible, and we’re upholding the law,” she said.

USCCB Lawsuit

In February, USCCB filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for halting the funding of its refugee resettlement program.

Under the program, USCCB facilitated the integration of refugees into the United States. The refugees were entitled to receive federal funds as transitional support for up to 90 days, which the complaint said was essential to helping them set up a new home.

When the Trump administration suspended the program in January, there were more than 6,700 refugees assigned to USCCB by the government who were still within their 90-day transition period, the lawsuit said.

The suspension caused USCCB to have “millions of dollars in pending, unpaid reimbursements for services already rendered to refugees and is accruing millions more each week—with no indication that any future reimbursements will be paid or that the program will ever resume,” it said.

The proceedings in the case were stayed in July upon the USCCB’s request after the organization and the federal government entered into an agreement to wind down the group’s participation in the refugee resettlement program.

In an interview with Fox News in February, Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, was critical of the Catholic bishops, saying he was disappointed because they had “not been a good partner in common sense immigration enforcement” and took more than $100 million to “help resettle illegal immigrants.”

“You love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country,” said Vance. “Then after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.”

Reuters contributed to this report.