US border czar Tom Homan, who has been charged with removing illegal immigrants from the United States, has criticised the Catholic Church’s position on President Donald Trump’s administration’s mass deportations, calling its stance “wrong”.
“The Catholic Church is wrong, I’m sorry,” Homan told reporters outside the White House. “I’m saying it not only as the border czar, I’m saying it as a Catholic.”
Homan, who described himself as a “lifelong Catholic”, said American Catholic bishops were sending the wrong message after issuing a rare statement earlier this week at a conclave in which they backed immigrants and opposed what they termed “indiscriminate mass deportations of people”.
Reacting sharply to their intervention, Homan added, “I think they need to spend time fixing the Catholic Church.”
The American bishops, currently meeting in Baltimore for the Conference of Catholic Bishops, warned in their statement about the impact of immigration policies on pastoral and charitable work. They reiterated the Catholic Church’s longstanding teaching on the dignity of the migrant.
“Human dignity and national security are not in conflict,” the statement said, noting that “both are possible if people of good will work together.” The bishops urged “meaningful reform of our nation’s immigration laws and procedures” and prayed “for an end to dehumanising rhetoric and violence.”
Homan, however, remained firm in defending the administration’s approach, maintaining that enforcement is necessary and contending that the Catholic Church does not understand that the Trump administration is saving lives.
“We’re going to enforce the law and by doing that we save a lot of lives,” he said. “I wish the Catholic Church would understand that.” He added that ICE was “sending a message to the whole world”.
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