Vice President J.D. Vance said Sunday that he was “heartbroken” by what he called unfair criticism by America’s Catholic bishops of the Trump administration’s early moves to crack down on illegal immigration.
Mr. Vance said that as a practicing Catholic, he questioned the motives of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which received tens of millions of dollars in federal funding to help settle unauthorized migrants in the United States during the Biden administration.
“Are they worried about humanitarian concerns? Or are they actually worried about their bottom line?” the vice president asked.
“I think the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has, frankly, not been a good partner in common sense immigration enforcement that the American people voted for, and I hope, again, as a devout Catholic, that they’ll do better,” he said.
USCCB has been particularly persistent in its attacks on President Trump during his first week in office.
Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the USCCB, fired off an initial release Wednesday calling some of the immigration executive orders “deeply troubling.”
El Paso Bishop Mark J. Seitz, who heads USCCB’s migration committee, followed up with a statement Wednesday saying the president’s early directives “are specifically intended to eviscerate humanitarian protections” and would leave children to face “grave danger.” He also complained about Mr. Trump deploying more U.S. troops to the border — a move made by every previous president dating back to George H.W. Bush in the late 1980s.
“We urge President Trump to pivot from these enforcement-only policies to just and merciful solutions, working in good faith with members of Congress to achieve meaningful, bipartisan immigration reform that furthers the common good with an effective, orderly immigration system,” Bishop Seitz said Wednesday.
A day later Bishop Seitz followed with another broadside after the Department of Homeland Security revoked a Biden-era policy that had blocked agents and officers from making immigration arrests at or near churches, schools, clinics, playgrounds, community organizations, day care centers and a host of other places.
The bishop said they were already seeing “reticence among immigrants to engage in daily life” — including school and church attendance.
“All people have a right to fulfill their duty to God without fear,” Bishop Seitz said.
Mr. Vance said if the bishops were worried about humanitarian issues involving immigration, they should “talk about the children who have been sex-trafficked because of the wide open border of Joe Biden.”
He also defended the decision to revoke the sensitive locations policy.
“Let’s separate the immigration issue. If you had a violent murderer in a school, of course I want law enforcement to go and get that person out,” he told CBS.
Archbishop Broglio, while criticizing Mr. Trump’s actions, insisted the bishops are politically neutral.
“I wish to reiterate that the Catholic Church is not aligned with any political party, and neither is the bishops’ conference. No matter who occupies the White House or holds the majority on Capitol Hill, the Church’s teachings remain unchanged,” he said in his statement
• Emma Ayers contributed to this article.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.