The archbishop of Los Angeles sharply criticized the Trump administration’s “cruel and arbitrary” immigration policy, following widespread protests against the White House migration agenda throughout the city.
In a column this week for the Catholic magazine Angelus, Archbishop José Gomez accused the administration of having “no immigration policy beyond the stated goal of deporting thousands of people each day.”
“This is not policy, it is punishment, and it can only result in cruel and arbitrary outcomes,” the bishop, a longtime advocate of immigration reform and himself a naturalized U.S. citizen from Mexico, continued. “Already we are hearing stories of innocent fathers and mothers being wrongly deported, with no recourse to appeal.”
The bishop added that the Biden administration “went too far in not securing our borders” and faulted both parties for not passing a major immigration reform since the late 1980s.
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
The comments come after federal troops were dispatched over the protests in Los Angeles, which is home to both the largest Catholic diocese in the United States and a population that’s over one-third foreign-born.
The bishop’s remarks also illustrate the continued schism between the Catholic Church and the administration, which counts devout Catholic convert JD Vance as vice president.
Before his death, Pope Francis criticized the administration over its treatment of migrants, arguing the church’s values of protecting refugees and immigrants date back to the story of Jesus himself.
“What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly,” Francis said.
His successor, Pope Leo, has also been critical, with then-cardinal Robert Prevost chiding Vance in February after he suggested Catholic teaching urged followers to love their families before others in their midst.
“JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others,” he wrote on social media.
Prevost also reshared an article sharply criticizing the governments of the U.S. and El Salvador for their handling of the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man the U.S. admitted it mistakenly deported to his home country despite a court order barring his removal, then initially declined to return to America.
“Do you not see the suffering?” the reshared article read. “Is your conscience not disturbed? How can you stay quiet?”
The disagreements have gone beyond just doctrinal disputes, though.
The Trump administration’s attempts to freeze foreign aid and suspend refugee resettlement have decimated Catholic relief agencies inside the U.S. that contracted with the federal government.
In February, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops sued over the administration’s abrupt suspension of refugee resettlement work.
The following month, the conference announced it was ending its refugee partnerships with the government going forward, bringing to a close a nearly half-century collaboration on refugee resettlement.
Last week, a committee in the Republican-controlled House announced it would investigate more than 200 non-governmental organizations that received taxpayer funds for migrant-related work, including major Catholic groups like Catholic Charities USA and the bishops’ conference.
In January, Vance accused the conference of resettling “illegal immigrants,” comments New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan called “scurrilous,” “nasty,” and incorrect, given the church’s history of resettling legal refugees.
