Homan Torches Catholic Hierarchy Over Opposition To Trump’s Immigration Policy

In a blistering rebuke of the Catholic Church’s hierarchy, U.S. Border Czar Tom Homan fired back Monday at high-ranking clergy who have criticized the Trump administration’s intensified immigration enforcement and mass deportation policies.

Speaking after several American cardinals echoed the Vatican’s opposition to the administration’s border strategy, Homan — a lifelong Catholic himself — warned the Church to “stay out of immigration,” arguing that religious leaders lack a foundational understanding of the “atrocities” occurring at the border.

“I’m not going to speak for the president; I’m speaking for myself,” Homan said. “If they wore my shoes for 40 years, and talked to a 9-year-old girl that got raped multiple times, or stood in the back of a tractor-trailer with 19 dead aliens at my feet … I think their opinion would change.”

Homan’s comments follow a high-profile “60 Minutes” interview featuring three prominent U.S. cardinals: Blase Cupich of Chicago, Robert McElroy of San Diego, and Joseph Tobin of Newark. During the segment, Cardinal Tobin stood by his previous characterization of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a “lawless organization,” claiming the agency “violates guarantees of our Constitution” to “terrify people.”

The religious leaders argued that the administration’s focus on deporting long-term residents has created a climate of fear so pervasive that attendance at Spanish-language Masses has plummeted by 30 percent in some areas. Cardinal McElroy, while conceding that border crossings had grown “out of control” under the previous administration, denounced the current “roundup” of people who have lived “good, strong lives” in the U.S. for years.

“I would like to know what Catholics feel about this indiscriminate mass deportation,” Cardinal Cupich added. “I think that it’s very clear the American people are saying, ‘We really didn’t vote for this.’”

However, Homan countered that a secure border is the only moral path, claiming President Trump is “saving thousands of lives” by putting human traffickers out of business and bankrupting cartels. “Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime,” Homan said, welcoming a direct debate with the clergy.

Border czar Tom Homan, to question on Trump feud with Pope Leo XIV: "I'm speaking for myself, a lifelong Catholic. I wish they'd stay out of immigration…If they understood the atrocities that happen on an open border, I think their opinion would change." pic.twitter.com/ZKVgKmy96D

— CSPAN (@cspan) April 14, 2026

The friction between the White House and the Church has reached all the way to the Vatican. Pope Leo XIV, who, as Bishop Robert Prevost in 2018, retweeted a social media post that stated, “There is nothing remotely Christian, American, or morally defensible about a policy that takes children away from their parents and warehouses them in cages. This is being carried out in our name and the shame is on us all,” issued a formal letter to U.S. bishops last year in which he stated, “The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality.”

It’s fascinating to see what social media reveals about a person before they become the Pope.

Before he became Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Prevost was on Twitter trashing Trump, criticizing Vance, calling for open borders, promoting COVID vaccines, endorsing stricter gun… pic.twitter.com/B60TqSYk7O

— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) April 14, 2026

Despite the forceful opposition from the pulpit, a majority of Catholic voters supported President Trump in the last election, gravitating toward his promises of national security and border integrity — a mandate Homan insists the administration is duty-bound to fulfill, regardless of the Vatican’s “critical judgment.”