Recent criticism of the Trump administration’s immigration policies appears in social media tweets from recently appointed Pope Leo XIV, Robert Prevost.
The Why It Matters
Courts all throughout the country have been postponing President Donald Trump’s campaign for mass deportations.
The president used the Alien Enemies Act, which gives him power to remove and imprison noncitizens, within the first one hundred days of his second term Court initially barred the implementation.
What One Should Know
On Thursday, 69-year-old Prevost from the Catholic Church became the first American pope chosen. Originally a missionary, he later worked as a Vatican official following years of ministering in Peru.
He has five posts this year on X, formerly Twitter, two about immigration.
Copying a link from America the Jesuit Review, Prevost remarked in the first immigration-related X post on February 13: “Pope Francis’s letter, JD Vance’s ‘ordo amoris’ and what the Gospel asks of all of us on immigration.”
The essay states, in part, “it ought to be apparent that Catholics cannot embrace a rhetoric that demonizes immigrants as dangerously criminal merely because they have crossed the border in quest of a better life for themselves and their children. Catholics cannot, quite clearly, celebrate forceful deportation policies as a spectacle. Catholics cannot embrace a doctrine of love that pats itself on the rear for putting some of the poorest among us farthest from our concern and generosity.”
The paper adds: “The Gospel does not offer a charter on how to legislate about immigration. It does provide a benchmark for the distance we must travel to love our neighbor and a rejection of the constraints we could be at ease with regarding who our neighbors are.”
The paper then closes with the line “The question we need to answer is whether we judge our politics according to the Gospel or the other way around.”
Once an undoc-ed Salvadorean herself, now-DC Aux +Evelio asks, “Do you not see the suffering? The second post on April 14 is a repost from X account Rocco Palmo: “As Trump & Bukele use Oval to Feds’ illegitimate deportation of a US resident.” Is there disturbance in your conscience? How are you supposed to be silent?
The post relates to the situation of the deportation of El Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia that has engulfed the country and legislators in Washington.
Following his 2019 arrest, Abrego Garcia has been charged of belonging to the MS-13 gang, a foreign terrorist organization identified by the Trump government.
Although he and his attorney have denied any gang activity, two judges—based on private material given to the court—concluded he was an MS-13 member in different verdicts.
An immigration judge decided he would be targeted by MS-13’s gang rivals, therefore shielding him from deportation to his own country. After being detained last month in what Trump administration attorneys claimed to be an administrative blunder, Abrego Garcia was finally deported to El Salvador.
Abrego Garcia has no criminal record in the United States while his family disputes any connections to gangs. His wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura accused him of domestic violence in 2021 and filed paperwork to get a restraining order; but, she claims they have since worked things out.
Vasquez Sura said, in an exclusive statement to Newsweek, in part: “Things did not escalate, and I opted not to follow through with the civil court process. We worked through the matter discreetly as a family, including visits to counseling.”
What Individuals Say
Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin of the Department of Homeland Security emailed Newsweek on Thursday: “Get a grip. Regarding the Pope, the Department of Homeland Security is not going to comment. The media ought to give up trying to fan separation.
On Thursday, Truth Social, President Donald Trump said: “Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was recently crowned Pope. Knowing that he is the first American Pope honors one greatly. What thrill, and what a Great Honor for our Nation? Dealing with Pope Leo XIV excites me. It will be quite significant!
On X on Thursday, vice president JD Vance said, “Congratulations to Leo XIV, the first American Pope, on his election! Millions of American Catholics and other Christians surely will pray for his successful leadership of the Church. may God bless him!
In an email to Newsweek on Thursday, Jennie Murray, president and CEO of the National Immigration Forum, said, “We are optimistic that the new pope will follow his predecessor’s strong example and emphasize the God-given human dignity and safety of migrants around the world. Having a pope’s leadership in this field is really vital.
The church-based immigration advocacy charity World Relief emailed Newsweek on Thursday: “The Catholic Church has a long tradition of carrying out Christian compassion for immigrants and pushing for just policy. Though we of course have some theological differences as evangelical Christians, our biblically-rooted concern for the welfare of immigrants unites us and we are pleased to keep working with our Catholic brothers and sisters as Pope Leo XIV starts his pontificate.
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