White House border czar Tom Homan stepped into the growing tension between the Trump administration and the Vatican on Tuesday, delivering a response so raw and grounded in lived experience that it's nearly impossible to argue with. A lifelong Catholic himself, Homan didn't attack the church. He challenged it to do better.
Pope Leo hasn’t exactly been quiet on the issue of immigration enforcement in the United States, and bizarrely declared that there is "inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States."
The Trump administration views its immigration enforcement record as one of its greatest achievements, and having the pope trash it certainly stung. On Sunday, Trump called the pope "WEAK on Crime and terrible for Foreign Policy,” pointing specifically to the pontiff's opposition to the Iran war and U.S. military action in Venezuela. The pope fired back that he does not "fear" the administration.
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Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic, tried to cool things down Monday, calling Trump's remarks not "newsworthy" and suggesting "it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality… and let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy.”
That was spot on, but Homan took a different approach entirely, hitting much harder.
"I'm not gonna speak for the president. I'm speaking for myself, a lifelong Catholic," Homan said. “I wish they’d stay out of immigration because they don’t know what they’re talking about. Because if they wore my shoes for forty years and talked to a nine-year-old girl that got raped multiple times, or stood in the back of a tractor-trailer, with nineteen dead aliens at my feet, including a five-year-old boy that baked to death. If they understood the atrocities that happen on an open border, I think their opinion would change."
No amount of Vatican commentary changes what Homan saw with his own eyes.
"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 explained. "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."
🚨 WOW. Border Czar Tom Homan just gave the PERFECT response to Pope Leo
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 14, 2026
"I'm a lifelong Catholic. I wish they'd STAY OUT of immigration, they don't know what they're talking about."
"Because if they wore my shoes for 40 years, and talked to a 9-year-old girl that got r*ped… pic.twitter.com/9KBT1Pbiiu
This is the argument the church — and frankly most of the media — never wants to sit with. Secure borders don't just protect American citizens. They protect migrants from the predators who exploit open-border chaos for profit. Letting that happen would be inhumane, which is why the Trump administration is putting an end to illegal immigration.
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