Tom Homan, a career immigration professional and lifelong Catholic, pushed back hard when prominent Catholic figures criticized robust border enforcement, arguing they don’t grasp what happens on the ground and that secure borders protect lives and the common good.
Several Catholic leaders, including Pope Leo XIV, have spoken out against President Trump’s immigration enforcement policies and that criticism has drawn national attention. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and other Catholic groups were reported to have been getting hundreds of millions from the government to “resettle” immigrants in America, and the Trump administration cut off that funding. The pushback from religious leaders followed quickly after funding changes and policy shifts.
The Vatican, with its own strict immigration rules and the Swiss Guard to enforce them, does not face the daily chaos of the U.S. border and its humanitarian crises. Tom Homan, a Catholic who has decades of experience in immigration enforcement, says his perspective comes from boots-on-the-ground work rather than theory. He believes distant policymakers and well-meaning clerics often miss the brutal realities that drive enforcement priorities.
And he’s got a message for Pope Leo and others: stay out of the issue. “I’m not going to speak for the President, I’m speaking for myself, a lifelong Catholic,” Homan said. “I would say, stay out of immigration. They don’t know what they’re talking about.”
Homan did not hold back when he described what he has seen during his career, insisting a pastoral view that ignores criminal violence is incomplete and misleading. “Because if they wore my shoes for 40 years, and talked to a nine-year-old girl that got raped multiple times, or stood in the back of a tractor-trailer with 19 dead aliens at my feet including a five-year-old boy that baked to death, if they understood the atrocities that happen on the open border, I think their opinion would change,” Homan continued.
He tied those horrors directly to enforcement policy, arguing that a secure border saves lives and suppresses criminal enterprises that prey on migrants and Americans alike. “And I welcome a discussion with any of them, because they don’t understand illegal immigration is not a victimless crime. Where President Trump had the most secure border in the lifetime of this nation, right now, lives are being saved. He’s saving thousands of lives a year because he has a secure border,” Homan said. “Human traffickers are out of business, right? The cartels are going bankrupt because of that secure border. I wish they’d understand that. Because if they did, I think they’d have a different opinion.”
Those arguments struck a chord with many who see enforcement as a moral duty to protect innocent lives rather than a simple immigration debate. He’s exactly right that enforcement and compassion are not mutually exclusive when lives are at stake. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is often cited on hospitality, and it is clear that countries are obligated to the extent that they are able to welcome immigrants, while also expecting newcomers to obey the laws and culture of their new home.
Bingo. That reaction reflects how many Americans hear the data and the human stories and then draw obvious conclusions about priorities. When policymakers weigh ethical obligations, practical limits and public safety, enforcement must be part of that calculation.
It is not a lack of compassion to insist on rules that protect citizens and migrants alike; in many cases it is the only humane response to criminal exploitation. It’s not compassion, either. “They also have the responsibility to study the issues, gather the requisite data on both sides (such as that presented by Tom Homan below), weigh such against timeless Catholic principles, and speak in a manner that is prudent and aimed at the common good,” Carr wrote.
Strong immigration laws, paired with vigorous enforcement, serve the public interest and the vulnerable by dismantling smugglers and stopping deadly crossings before they occur. Those tools are not ideological toys; they are practical mechanisms that reduce suffering and secure communities. For many conservatives and for frontline professionals like Homan, enforcement equals protection.
Expectations that distant institutions will fully grasp border realities remain low among people who live with the consequences every day. We wouldn’t hold our breath on sweeping public apologies or quick shifts in perspective from leaders who have never stood in the smuggling lanes or seen the human cost first-hand. The debate will continue, but the contrast between lived experience and high‑level commentary is plain.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump, illegal immigration into our great country has virtually stopped. Despite the radical left’s lies, new legislation wasn’t needed to secure our border, just a new president.
