The Bishop of Texas on the Front Lines of Immigration crackdown in the United States met Wednesday with Pope Leo XIVbringing him a packet of letters from immigrant families “terrorized” by fear that they and their loved ones will be arrested and deported as the Trump administration’s tactics become increasingly combative.
El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz also showed Leo a video detailing the migrants’ plight, and later told the Associated Press that Leo had vowed to “stand with them” and with Catholic leaders who are trying to help them.
“He had a few words for us, thanking us for our commitment to immigrant peoples and also saying that he hopes the bishops’ conference will speak out on this issue,” said Seitz, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ committee on migration.
Leo, who was born in Chicago and is also a Peruvian citizen, has not spoken much about American politics since his arrival. appointed head of the Catholic Churchbut recently highlighted what he considers to be contradictions in the debates around abortion, the death penalty and immigration.
“Someone who says ‘I’m against abortion but says I’m in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life,” he said earlier this month. “Someone who says, ‘I’m against abortion, but I agree with the inhumane treatment of immigrants in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”
Catholic leaders in the United States have denounced the Trump administration’s crackdown, which has divided families, sparked fear and upended life in U.S. churches and schools serving migrant communities. The administration has defended the crackdown as ensuring public safety and national security.
“We don’t want to enter the political fray, we’re not politicians, but we have to teach the faith,” and particularly the message of the Gospel recognizing the inherent dignity of all God’s children, as well as care for the poor and welcoming the stranger, Seitz said.
“They’re terrified. And it’s a fear that has a long-term impact on people, on their lives,” he said.
The letters and video Seitz presented to Leo detail the fear that even legal migrants face on a daily basis. U.S. citizens, legal immigrants and children are among those arrested in increasingly brazen and aggressive encounters by federal agents. In Leo’s hometown of Chicago, immigration agents stormed apartment complexes by helicopter while families slept, deployed chemical agents near a public school and handcuffed a city official at a hospital.
“They can’t go out. They are afraid to go shopping, to go to church and so they stay at home,” Maria writes in one of the letters given to Leo. Originally from Guatemala, she has lived in San Francisco for a quarter century and was granted asylum years ago, but has relatives in the United States who are not legal.
“The Pope needs to talk to Trump and ask him to think about what he is doing to immigrants,” she wrote. “The Pope must plead with Trump and Trump must listen to him. Trump must change what he is doing.”
Just before his death, Pope Francis has strongly rebuked the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations, warning that forcibly deporting people solely because of their illegal status strips them of their inherent dignity.
The first American pope in history followed Francis’ line. Last weekend, Leo celebrated a special Holy Year Mass for migrants, denouncing the “coldness of indifference” and the “stigma of discrimination” that migrants desperate to flee violence and suffering often face. Asked by reporters this week about the crackdown in Chicago, Leo declined to comment.
Before becoming pope, Léon, or Cardinal Robert Prévost, posts often shared on social networks who criticized the Trump administration’s immigration positions.
On Wednesday, Leo was late for the hearing with Seitz and the delegation of about a dozen people, including members of the Hope Border Institute, an advocacy group formed in partnership with the Diocese of El Paso. Members of the delegation assured Leo that they would stand by him as they spoke in a Vatican reception room.
“Later in the meeting he said, ‘I’ll be right there with you,’ so it was a wonderful little exchange,” Seitz said.
There are rumors in the Vatican that the pope may be considering a trip to the United States as early as next year, when the United States will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. President Trump invited him.
Francis celebrated Mass on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border in 2016, in Ciudad Juarez, with the liturgy broadcast live to a stadium across the border in El Paso.
Seitz was evasive when asked if Leo would be able to travel to the U.S. side of the border.
“Well, you know he’d be welcome,” he said.
