Overview
- Border czar Tom Homan, speaking outside the White House, told the bishops to "spend time fixing the Catholic Church" as he rejected their critique of ICE deportation tactics.
- Homan defended enforcement as lawful and humane, saying secure borders "save lives" and citing harsher penalties for entering the Vatican to counter the bishops’ claims.
- The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released a special pastoral message and video opposing indiscriminate mass deportations following a fall assembly vote exceeding 95% approval.
- The bishops highlighted a climate of fear, troubling detention conditions, limited pastoral access, and family separations as key moral and pastoral concerns.
- Conservative group CatholicVote issued a report arguing faithful Catholics can support strong, humane enforcement as a matter of prudential judgment, accusing some church leaders of creating confusion.