Tensions Rise: Pope Leo XIV Challenges Trump's Immigration Policies

Wed Dec 24 2025 04:30:39 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

The relationship between the newly elected American Pope Leo XIV and the current administration under Donald Trump is strained over immigration policies, prompting significant responses from both the Church and conservative supporters.

Pope Leo XIV has taken an outspoken stance against the Trump administration's immigration policies, raising tensions with conservative Catholics and administration officials. This opposition highlights a divide in the Catholic community, with bishops urging a more compassionate approach to immigration while some conservative commentators insist the Pope should focus solely on spiritual matters. As immigration remains a hot-button issue in U.S. politics, the dialogue between the Church and the government is increasingly fraught with conflict.

Jesse Romero, a conservative Catholic podcaster, has some choice words for Pope Leo XIV.

The Pope should tell us how to get to heaven, says Romero. He has no authority over the government; he has to stay in his lane.

As a Donald Trump supporter, he is angry about criticism made by the American-born Pope and US bishops about his mass deportation policy.

With one in five Americans identifying as Catholic, the Church plays an important role in American life - and politics.

Catholics like Vice President JD Vance, and influential legal activist Leonard Leo, were an important part of Donald Trump's electoral success. They are at the heart of the cabinet too, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Education Secretary Linda McMahon holding key offices.

But the issue of immigration has become a faultline between Church leadership and the government, as well as amongst parishioners themselves.

When cardinals gathered at the papal conclave in May, Romero had hoped for a Trump-like Pope, with a similar outlook to the president.

Instead, Pope Leo XIV has spoken repeatedly about his concerns over how migrants are treated in the US, calling for deep reflection on the matter in November. The pontiff evoked the gospel of Matthew, adding that Jesus says very clearly, at the end of the world, we're going to be asked, 'How did you receive the foreigner?

A week later the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), issued a rare Special Message voicing their concern for the evolving situation impacting immigrants in the United States. The bishops said they were disturbed at what they called a climate of fear and anxiety. They added that they oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people and pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence.

It was a significant intervention, the first time the USCCB had used such a communique in a dozen years. It was backed by the Pope, who called the statement very important and urged all Catholics and people of goodwill, to listen carefully to it.

I think the relationship is quite tense, says David Gibson, director of Fordham University's Center on Religion and Culture.

Conservatives had hoped that Pope Leo would bring a change from his predecessor Pope Francis's focus on issues of social justice and migration, according to Gibson.

Many of them are angry. They want to tell the church to shut up, and to confine itself to issues such as abortion, Mr Gibson says.

White House border czar, Tom Homan - himself a Catholic - has said that the Church is wrong, and that its leaders need to spend time fixing the Catholic Church. And in October, the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt rejected the Chicago born Pope's suggestion that US treatment of immigrants was inhuman and not in line with pro-life beliefs.

Gibson argues that the government's calculation is that there are enough American Catholics, especially white American Catholics, who support the Republican Party and Donald Trump, that it's politically beneficial at the end of the day to pick a fight with the Pope. That's an unprecedented calculus.

Nearly 60% of white Catholics approve of how Trump is handling immigration, according to a new study by the think tank the Public Religion Research Institute. That figure is around 30% for Hispanics, who are 37% of the US Catholic population.