The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has been a vocal critic of President Trump and his administration's enforcement of immigration policy. Back in January, they were some of the first to object to the plan for wide-scale deportations.
In a statement released after the inauguration, the USCCB said, "We recognize the need for just immigration enforcement and affirm the government’s obligation to carry it out in a targeted, proportional, and humane way. However, non-emergency immigration enforcement in schools, places of worship, social service agencies, healthcare facilities, or other sensitive settings where people receive essential services would be contrary to the common good."
Vice President Vance, himself a Catholic, responded, saying, "I was actually heartbroken by that statement. And I think that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to actually look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive over $100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns? Or are they actually worried about their bottom line?"
Vance is, of course, correct. The Catholic Church and its various charitable arms have received hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds to resettle illegal immigrants in America. In fact, over half of the USCCB's total revenue for 2023 came from those sources.
As this writer has pointed out many times, the Catechism of the Catholic Church is clear on the issue of immigration: it says nations are only obligated to take in immigrants to the extent they are able and requires those immigrants to obey the laws and customs of their new nation. America is broke, and cannot spend billions on housing, feeding, and educating illegal immigrants ahead of our own citizens. And anyone who begins their time in this nation by breaking our immigration laws doesn't respect this country.
Two days ago, Catholic bishops in Florida once again asked the Trump administration to change its stance on immigration enforcement. Namely, they wanted an amnesty over the Christmas holiday.
The White House rejected the request.
White House says no to Catholic bishops' call for Christmas pause in immigration enforcement https://t.co/ErYqQJm4FQ
— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 23, 2025
Florida's Catholic bishops made an appeal on Monday for a pause in immigration enforcement for the Christmas holidays, but the White House said operations will continue.
The appeal to President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was issued by Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski and signed by seven other members of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops.
"The border has been secured," Wenski wrote. "The initial work of identifying and removing dangerous criminals has been accomplished to a great degree. Over half a million people have been deported this year, and nearly two million more have voluntarily self-deported."
"At this point, the maximum enforcement approach of treating irregular immigrants en masse means that now many of these arrest operations inevitably sweep up numbers of people who are not criminals but just here to work," he continued. "It should be noted that a significant majority of those detained in Alligator Alcatraz have no criminal background."
Wenski also played the Democratic Party's favorite pro-indentured servitude card. "If you ask people in agriculture, you ask in the service industry, you ask people in health care, you ask the people in the construction field, and they’ll tell you that some of their best workers are immigrants," Wenski said."
Wenski also said immigration enforcement must be rationalized and humanized.
Deporting illegal immigrants is rational and humanitarian. As we've noted, billions of dollars have gone to support illegal immigrants, including putting them in hotels while FEMA said it didn't have the funds to house North Carolinians displaced by hurricanes, in the middle of winter.
In a statement, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, "President Trump was elected based on his promise to the American people to deport criminal illegal aliens. And he's keeping that promise."
As he should. Every illegal immigrant is a criminal, even if the only crime they committed is crossing our border illegally. But the issue goes beyond mere law enforcement. Democrats have used immigration, both illegal and otherwise, to fundamentally change American culture — look no further than Minnesota for an example of this — and with the express purpose of granting illegals mass amnesty, thus granting them voting rights. Democrats hope to use that to secure a permanent majority.
And Catholic bishops should take a good, hard look at what that would mean. In Illinois, Cardinal Blase Cupich is learning that Democratic control means religious rights are trampled in favor of abortion "rights."
It's a political game, and it's one the Republicans must win.