The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops recently issued a rare and strongly worded message opposing what they called “indiscriminate mass deportations,” and the fallout was immediate when White House border czar Tom Homan pushed back hard against the clerical intervention. Homan did not mince words, saying the bishops were wrong to undercut law enforcement and urging religious leaders to stop encouraging dangerous journeys to the U.S. that fuel smuggling and cartel violence.
Americans who pay taxes and follow the law should be grateful someone in the administration is defending border enforcement instead of capitulating to headline-seeking activists in clerical robes. Homan reminded reporters that enforcing immigration law saves lives and that sanctuary for illegality simply invites more tragedy at the hands of smugglers and cartels. His bluntness — telling the bishops and even the pope to focus on their own institution’s problems — resonated with everyday citizens who are tired of elites lecturing them about compassion while ignoring the human cost of open borders.
Make no mistake: compassionate rhetoric that ignores enforcement is not compassionate to Americans who lose loved ones to fentanyl or fall prey to criminal aliens. Homan and other officials have repeatedly argued that prioritizing public-safety and national-security threats prevents trafficking, drug deaths, and violent crime, and that operational enforcement is necessary to bring order back to overwhelmed border communities. Those are practical, life-saving considerations, not abstract theology, and they deserve to be part of any honest moral debate.
The bishops’ statement is a sign of how far many institutions have drifted from their mission, inserting themselves into partisan culture wars while ignoring the real victims of lawlessness. Too many religious leaders have chosen optics over order, offering sanctimony while sanctuary policies turn neighborhoods into battlegrounds and invite exploitation of the vulnerable. If Catholic leadership wants moral credibility they should address those harms instead of lecturing the nation about enforcement choices they clearly don’t understand.
Meanwhile, ICE officers and administration officials are doing the hard, unpopular work of making deportations happen — work that has seen substantial numbers removed and that requires courage and clear priorities from policy-makers. The administration reports large-scale removals and a renewed emphasis on removing criminal and unsafe elements from our communities, and those actions are the reason border crossings and violent incidents have trended down where enforcement has been applied. Law and order is not cruelty; it is the foundation of a civilized society that protects both citizens and migrants from the predatory people-smugglers who profit from chaos.
Patriots should see Homan’s blunt defense of enforcement as a welcome break from the cowardly centrism that has let open borders fester into a national crisis. We need leaders who will put Americans first, secure our borders, and stop the moral preening that shames the very people doing the difficult work of keeping communities safe. Vote accordingly, hold bishops and elites accountable for political grandstanding, and support the men and women who enforce the law instead of apologizing for it.
