The White House’s so-called border czar has launched a sharp attack on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) after they issued a collective statement raising concerns over the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
Speaking to reporters outside the West Wing of the White House on 14 November, Tom Homan dismissed the bishops’ position outright, saying, “The Catholic Church is wrong,” and insisting that a secure border “saves lives” amid rising deaths linked to human smuggling and fentanyl trafficking.
Homan, a former director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a self-described “lifelong Catholic”, argued that tighter enforcement was a duty of government and that Church leaders misunderstood the realities faced by border agents.
“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”.
The remarks came two days after the USCCB overwhelmingly approved a pastoral statement on immigration at their autumn assembly in Baltimore.
While avoiding direct criticism of President Donald Trump, the bishops warned of the strain placed on pastoral and charitable work, and repeated longstanding Catholic teaching on the dignity of the migrant.
“Human dignity and national security are not in conflict,” the statement said, adding, “Both are possible if people of good will work together.” They called for “meaningful reform of our nation’s immigration laws and procedures” and prayed “for an end to dehumanising rhetoric and violence”.
Tom Homan offered little patience for that view. “I think they need to spend time fixing the Catholic Church,” he told reporters, repeating a line he has used on several occasions. In the past, Homan has said: “The Pope ought to stick to the Catholic Church and fix that. That’s a mess.”
He has also questioned the Vatican’s credibility on border matters, remarking,“He [the Pope] wants to attack us for securing our border? He’s got a wall around the Vatican, does he not?”
Tom Homan has emerged as one of the most prominent figures in US border enforcement, rising from a career spent in immigration policing to become a central voice in the US's debate over migration.
Born in upstate New York, he joined the Immigration and Naturalisation Service in the 1980s and spent decades on the front line of federal enforcement, working in detention operations, field supervision and later senior management. His prominence grew sharply in 2017 when President Donald Trump appointed him acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a post that placed him at the heart of the administration’s aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration.
After leaving government, he remained an influential ally of Trump and was brought back to the White House during Trump’s second term as president, taking on the newly created role of border czar.
Photo: White House 'border czar' Tom Homan stops to speaks to reporters following a video interview on the North Lawn outside of the White House, Washington, DC, 14 November 2025 (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
