Reuters reported that Pope Leo encouraged U.S. bishops visiting the Vatican to speak out strongly about how immigrants are being treated under President Donald Trump’s crackdown.
Bishop Mark Joseph Seitz of El Paso, Texas, met with Leo on October 8, according to the Vatican Press Office. Seitz posted on social media that she traveled with the group to share “the stories and fears of our immigrant sisters and brothers across the country.”
Seitz told Reuters that the pope said he wanted the U.S. bishops’ conference to speak out strongly on the issue. A representative for the Diocese of El Paso confirmed Seitz’s comments in an email to USA TODAY.
Leo has been increasingly critical of the Trump administration’s immigration policies in recent weeks.
“I say I’m against abortion, but I support the inhumane treatment of immigrants in the United States. I don’t know if that’s pro-life or not,” he told reporters on September 30, according to Reuters.
The White House pushed back against these comments, with press secretary Caroline Leavitt saying, “We deny that there has been inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants in the United States under this administration.”
He also mentioned the immigration issue that has arisen under the Biden administration.
“This administration is trying to enforce our laws in the most humane way possible, and we are upholding the laws,” Levitt said at a press conference on Oct. 1.
President Trump’s immigration crackdown wreaks havoc on Chicago children
President Trump has long promised to carry out mass deportations and has deployed a number of controversial tactics to deport 1 million people a year.
President Trump has vowed to send federal agents to Democratic-run cities as part of a crackdown on immigration. In the early hours of September 30, 300 police officers raided a Chicago apartment building and detained several American citizens, including children, for several hours.
Earlier this summer, the Trump administration ramped up ICE raids in California, arresting people with no criminal records other than immigration violations.
During Seitz’s visit on Wednesday, the pope was given letters from American immigrants, many of them talking about the horrors they are experiencing.
“I am very sad that my family may be separated from other families,” said one letter written by a Guatemalan woman living in California and shared with USA TODAY. “They can’t go out. They stay home because they’re scared to go shopping or go to church. I’m scared and so are they.”
Trump once described himself as a Presbyterian, but in 2020 he told Religion News Service that he had come to consider himself a nondenominational Christian.
However, first lady Melania Trump made headlines in 2017 when she met with the late Pope Francis and revealed that she was Catholic when she asked him to bless her rosary beads.
According to Politico, Leavitt is a devout Catholic and regularly prays with his staff before press conferences.
Contributed by: Michael Loia, Eduardo Cuevas, Maureen Groppe, USA Today; Reuters
Kinsey Crowley is a Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Please contact kcrowley@gannett.com. Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky (@kinseycrowley.bsky.social).
