Border Czar Tom Homan, responding on Newsmax to Pope Francis' stern rebuke to the Trump administration over its mass deportation efforts, said the pontiff should concentrate on the Catholic church's woes instead.
"You ought to get out of the business of our national security and our border enforcement work and concentrate on the Catholic church," Homan told "Wake Up America" on Tuesday. "You got a lot of problems right there in the Catholic church, You got enough to do. You got enough to fix in your own home. Leave the border stuff to us. We know what we're doing."
Pope Francis earlier Tuesday, in a letter to U.S. bishops, aimed at Vice President J.D. Vance's use of church doctrine to defend deportation and warned that removal of people purely over their illegal status "will end badly."
He also said that the mass deportations by force "damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness"
Homan told Newsmax that he's a lifelong Catholic, but said that the pope "doesn't understand" what the United States is facing with the immigration situation.
"He's got a border wall around the Vatican," said Homan. "That's OK. But we can't have a border. We can't have a wall around the United States."
He added that under Trump, illegal immigration border crossings are down 90%, adding that the pope should pay attention to the news that border crossings are at a record low.
"And that's what the pope ought to be paying attention to if he wants to get in our business," Homan said. "We're saving lives every day. A secure border saves lives. When less fentanyl comes across that border, less Americans die from drug overdoses."
Homan also repeated his stance to reporters at the White House Tuesday, reports CNN.
"I’ve got harsh words for the Pope,” Homan told the reporters. "Stick to the Catholic Church, leave border enforcement to us."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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