Pope Leo XIV said he will stand with Catholic leaders in protecting immigrants facing mass deportations in the U.S., according to a group of American Catholic leaders and advocacy groups he met with at the Vatican on Wednesday.
A delegation including El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz and members of the Hope Border Institute, an advocacy group partnered with the El Paso archdiocese, presented the pope with hundreds of letters and a four-minute video from immigrants detailing their experiences as the Trump administration’s deportation campaign continues to expel thousands from the U.S.
“He watched the whole thing, and his eyes at the end were filled with tears as he watched it,” Dylan Corbett, the founding executive director of the group, who was present at the meeting, told POLITICO. “As the meeting came to an end he said, ‘You stand with me and I stand with you, and the church will continue to accompany and stand with migrants.’”
Corbett said the pope urged Catholic bishops in the U.S. to be “more united and more forceful” on the issue of protecting migrants’ rights in the U.S.
“I was kind of surprised, because he didn’t really need an introduction to the topic,” Corbett said of the meeting. “He seemed to be very well-briefed and informed and concerned.”
Seitz, the El Paso bishop, similarly told the AP that Leo thanked “us for our commitment to the immigrant peoples and also saying that he hopes that the bishops’ conference will speak to this issue.”
Catholic leaders in the U.S. have condemned the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration effort, which has deported more than 2 million from the country. Administration officials defend the move as an investment in public safety and security, though immigrants and advocates say the deportations have separated many from their families and ignited fear in migrant communities.
In the first months of his papacy, Pope Leo has continued to mirror Pope Francis’ strong rebukes of the mass deportations. His predecessor said Trump’s deportation program would place immigrants in “a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness,” warning the administration it would “end badly.”
The pope’s comments in the Wednesday meeting are the most recent push from Pope Leo against the U.S.’s immigration crackdown. He questioned last week whether those who support “inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States” qualified as “pro life.” The White House rejected the statement, denying that there was “inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants in the United States under this administration.”
The White House in a statement Wednesday pointed to past remarks from press secretary Karoline Leavitt, in which she defended the administration’s treatment of immigrants and pointed to “significant inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants in the previous administration.”
The Vatican did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Corbett said he and other members of the delegation look forward to seeing the pope continue to “demonstrate that solidarity” but are now focusing on taking the pope’s message back to the U.S. and supporting immigrants on the ground.
“We’ve got to be much more vigorous in our opposition and thoughtful about ways that we can push for some real reform,” he said.
