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Pope blasts Trump admin over mass deportation plan, directs ire at Vance’s religious defense for policies

Pope Francis on Tuesday issued a major rebuke of the Trump administration’s plans for the mass deportations of migrants, stressing that the forceful removal of people simply for their immigration status deprives them of their inherent dignity and “will end badly.” Francis wrote a letter to U.S. bishops, in which he appeared to criticize Vice President JD Vance’s religious argument in defense of the deportation policies. U.S. border czar Tom Homan responded to the pope, saying that the Vatican is a city-state surrounded by walls and that Francis should leave immigration enforcement to him. Homan, a Catholic, also said Francis should focus on fixing the Catholic Church rather than U.S. immigration policies. “He wants to attack us for securing our border. He’s got a wall around the Vatican, does he not?” Homan told reporters. “So he’s got a wall around that protects his people and himself, but we can’t have a wall around the United States.” DOZENS OF RELIGIOUS GROUPS SUE TO STOP TRUMP ADMIN FROM ARRESTING MIGRANTS IN PLACES OF WORSHIP As the first Latin American pope, Francis has long held the position of caring for immigrants, pointing to the biblical command to “welcome the stranger” in calling on countries to welcome, protect, promote and integrate people fleeing conflicts, poverty and climate disasters. Francis and President Donald Trump have long butted heads over the issue of immigration, including prior to Trump’s first term, when Francis said in 2016 that anyone who builds a wall to keep migrants out was “not a Christian.” In his letter, Francis acknowledged that governments have the right to defend their countries and keep their communities safe from criminals, but he added the deportation of people who fled their countries due to various difficult circumstances damages their dignity. “That said, the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness,” he wrote. Pointing to the Book of Exodus in the Bible and Jesus Christ’s experience, Francis emphasized the right of people to seek shelter and safety in other lands and said the Trump administration’s deportation plan was a “major crisis.” Anyone educated in Christianity, he said, “cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality.” “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,” he continued. POPE FRANCIS CALLS TRUMP’S DEPORTATION PLAN A ‘DISGRACE’ The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, thanked the pope for his letter. “With you, we pray that the U.S. government keep its prior commitments to help those in desperate need,” Broglio wrote. “Boldly I ask for your continued prayers so that we may find the courage as a nation to build a more humane system of immigration, one that protects our communities while safeguarding the dignity of all.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week that more than 8,000 people had been arrested since Trump took office Jan. 20 as part of the president’s plan to detain and deport immigrants in the country illegally, although hundreds of those arrested have since been released back into the U.S. Others have been deported, are being held in federal prisons or are being held at the Guantánamo Bay Cuba, detention camp. Vance, a Catholic convert, has defended the administration’s deportation plans by citing a concept from medieval Catholic theology known in Latin as “ordo amoris,” which he has said describes a hierarchy of care: prioritizing the family first, then the neighbor, community, fellow citizens and lastly those from other regions. However, Francis sought to fact-check Vance’s understanding of the concept. “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups,” Francis wrote in his letter. “The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan,’ that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.” As Homan referenced, the Vatican is a walled-in, 108-acre city-state inside Rome, and it recently increased sanctions for anyone who enters illegally. The law, approved in December, calls for people to face up to four years in prison and a fine of up to 25,000 euros, or $25,873, if they enter with “violence, threat or deception,” including by evading security checkpoints. The U.S. bishops conference had already released a statement condemning Trump’s immigration policies after his first executive orders. Anyone “focused on the treatment of immigrants and refugees, foreign aid, expansion of the death penalty, and the environment, are deeply troubling and will have negative consequences, many of which will harm the most vulnerable among us,” the statement said. Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago praised Francis’ letter, telling Vatican Media that it showed the pope viewed “the protection and advocacy for the dignity of migrants as the preeminent urgency at this moment.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Dozens of religious groups sue to stop Trump admin from arresting migrants in places of worship

A coalition of 27 Christian and Jewish groups representing millions of Americans filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging a Trump administration action allowing federal immigration enforcement to make arrests in places of worship. The federal lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, was brought on behalf of a range of religious groups, including the Episcopal Church, the Union for Reform Judaism, the Mennonites and Unitarian Universalists. The lawsuit challenges an order by President Donald Trump that reversed a Biden administration policy barring agents from arresting illegal migrants in sensitive places like churches, schools and hospitals. According to the lawsuit, Trump’s new policy has sparked fear of raids, which has led to lower attendance at worship services and other church programs. Because of this impact on attendance, the lawsuit argues the policy infringes on the groups’ religious freedom, particularly their ability to minister to migrants, including those in the U.S. illegally. ‘SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES’: TED CRUZ DELIVERS STRONG WARNING TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FLEEING BORDER PATROL “We have immigrants, refugees, people who are documented and undocumented,” the Most Rev. Sean Rowe, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, told The Associated Press. “We cannot worship freely if some of us are living in fear,” he added. “By joining this lawsuit, we’re seeking the ability to gather and fully practice our faith, to follow Jesus’ command to love our neighbors as ourselves.” A similar lawsuit was filed Jan. 27 by five Quaker congregations that was later joined by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and a Sikh temple. That case is currently pending in U.S. District Court in Maryland. The new lawsuit names the Department of Homeland Security and its immigration enforcement agencies as defendants. “We are protecting our schools, places of worship, and Americans who attend, by preventing criminal aliens and gang members from exploiting these locations and take safe haven there because these criminals knew that under the previous Administration that law enforcement couldn’t go inside,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, Tricia McLaughlin, said in a statement. “DHS’s directive gives our law enforcement the ability to do their jobs,” she said. A memorandum filed Friday by the Department of Justice, opposing the argument in the Quaker lawsuit, could also apply to the new lawsuit. The DOJ claims that the plaintiffs’ request to block the new immigration enforcement policy is based on speculation of hypothetical future harm, which the department says makes for insufficient grounds for the courts to side with the Quakers and issue an injunction. In the memo, the DOJ said that immigration enforcement affecting places of worship had been allowed for decades and that the new policy announced last month stated that field agents should use “common sense” and “discretion” but could now carry out immigration enforcement operations in houses of worship without pre-approval from a supervisor. One part of that memo may not apply to the new lawsuit, as it argued the Quakers and their fellow plaintiffs have no basis for seeking a nationwide injunction to protect all religious groups against the new policy. NOEM, HEGSETH, BONDI PLEAD WITH CONGRESS FOR MORE BORDER FUNDING AMID LARGE-SCALE DEPORTATIONS “Any relief in this case should be tailored solely to the named plaintiffs,” the DOJ memo said, arguing that any injunction should not apply to other religious organizations. The plaintiffs in the new lawsuit represent a significantly larger number of American worshipers, including more than 1 million followers of Reform Judaism, around 1.5 million Episcopalians, more than 1 million members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the estimated 1.5 million active members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, among others. “The massive scale of the suit will be hard for them to ignore,” lead counsel Kelsi Corkran, who is a lawyer with the Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, told The Associated Press. Corkran said the plaintiffs joined the lawsuit “because their scripture, teaching, and traditions offer irrefutable unanimity on their religious obligation to embrace and serve the refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants in their midst without regard to documentation or legal status.” Before Trump’s change to federal policy, Corkran said immigration agents generally needed a judicial warrant or other special authorization to conduct operations in locations like places of worship, schools and hospitals. “Now it’s go anywhere, any time,” she said. “Now they have broad authority to swoop in — they’ve made it very clear they’ll get every undocumented person.” The lawsuit outlined how some of the plaintiffs’ operations may be affected. Some, including the Union for Reform Judaism and the Mennonites, said many of their synagogues and churches host on-site foodbanks, meal programs, homeless shelters and other support services for illegal migrants who may now be fearful of participating. One plaintiff, the Latino Christian National Network, described the fear among migrants in the wake of the new Trump administration policy. “There is deep-seated fear and distrust of our government,” the network’s president, Rev. Carlos Malavé, a pastor of two churches in Virginia, told The Associated Press. “People fear going to the store, they are avoiding going to church. … The churches are increasingly doing online services because people fear for the well-being of their families.” One religious group that did not join the new lawsuit is the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which leads the nation’s largest denomination, although it has criticized Trump’s mass deportation plan. On Tuesday, Pope Francis criticized the administration’s immigration policies, saying that the forceful removal of people because of their immigration status deprives them of their inherent dignity and that doing so, he argued, “will end badly.” Many conservative faith leaders and legal experts across the country, however, share no concerns about immigration enforcement targeting places of worship to arrest migrants. “Places of worship are for worship and are not sanctuaries for illegal activity or for harboring people engaged in illegal activity,” Mat Staver, founder of the conservative Christian legal organization Liberty Counsel, told The Associated Press. “Fugitives or criminals are not immune from the law merely because they enter a

Jordanian foreign minister rejects Trump’s Gaza displacement plan

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Children in Haiti falling prey to gruesome gang violence, Amnesty warns

Report estimates that more than a million children live in areas controlled by or under the influence of armed gangs. Gangs in Haiti are recruiting children and targeting them with violence and sexual assault, Amnesty International said in a report detailing the effects of the long-running civil unrest ravaging the Caribbean nation. A report published on Wednesday estimates that more than one million children live in areas controlled by or under the influence of armed gangs in Haiti, and condemned offences committed against young people as “human rights abuses”. Haiti has no president or parliament and is ruled by a transitional body, which is struggling to manage extreme violence linked to criminal gangs, poverty and other challenges. More than 5,600 people were killed in Haiti last year as a result of gang violence, about a thousand more than in 2023, according to the United Nations. Amnesty’s report echoes concerns voiced by the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, in November. The group reported then that gang recruitment of children in the country has risen by 70 percent, and that between 30 to 50 percent of gang members in Haiti are children. Advertisement The new report highlights 14 Haitian children recruited by gangs to spy on rival groups and police, as well as to carry out work such as making deliveries or repairing vehicles. One of the children interviewed said he was constantly pressured by a gang to fight alongside it. “They killed people in front of me and asked me to burn their bodies. But I don’t have the heart for that,” the unidentified boy was quoted as saying. If children refuse to follow a gang’s orders, they or their families would be killed, according to the report, which relied on interviews and research conducted from May to October 2024. Haitian girls are frequent victims of abductions, rape and other sexual assaults during gang attacks, Amnesty said. Haiti has no president or parliament and is ruled by a transitional body, which is struggling to manage extreme violence linked to criminal gangs, poverty and other challenges [Ralph Tedy Erol/Reuters] The violence also has led to injury and death. One girl, 14, recounted how a ricocheting bullet pierced her lip in September 2024. Three months before that, her 17-year-old brother died from a stray bullet. “I lost a huge presence in my life. Since then, I don’t know how to be happy,” the girl said. Amnesty also identified attacks on schools and hospitals, as well as the blocking of humanitarian aid, as examples of “grave violations” suffered by children. Adblock test (Why?)

Ex-NY Giants player is helping deported migrants in Guatemala, blames Biden for the problem

EXCLUSIVE: Retired New York Giants safety Jack Brewer and his global ministry are on the ground in Guatemala City this week, helping officials receive migrant families deported from the U.S., providing food, support and prayer as they essentially start life anew. Brewer and his Jack Brewer Foundation have years of experience working in impoverished areas of the world like Haiti, Malawi and Central America, which Brewer said has allowed him to work closer than most and interact with the returning families. While it is President Donald Trump and border czar Tom Homan enforcing U.S. law and deporting illegal immigrants, Brewer said it is clear former President Joe Biden’s “broken” policies are truly to blame for the heartache and hardship.  “Three years ago, I started to follow the fatherlessness crisis that is happening right here in Guatemala, where a lot of men were leaving their households and coming to Joe Biden’s open borders – and just seeing it literally devastate families.” CHARITY LEADERS SLAM BIDEN ADMIN RESPONSE TO US PLANES SHOT IN HAITI AMID CHAOS Brewer said Guatemala was losing much of its workforce and that a lot of those poor families trying to get to the U.S. actually did not know a “legal” immigration route existed, and they instead took the cartels and others at their word and paid thousands of dollars to be trafficked north. “They’ve been told by coyotes and different people that you can just come [to the U.S.], and if you come here, if you bring your child, they’ll just let you in,” Brewer said. “And so, you know, there’s a huge education gap there on the ground.” Brewer also met with Raul Berrios from CONAMIGUA – the National Council for Attention to Migrants of Guatemala – as well as Sergio Samuel Vela-Lopez, head of the Guatemala Penitentiary Department. Berrios, Lopez and others are trying to create an effective system for welcoming the migrants and processing those who are innocent families versus those who may have criminal records or other issues requiring government attention, according to Brewer. FORMER NFL SAFETY JACK BREWER TORCHES CA’S COSTLY REPARATIONS PUSH Many families returning to the capital city live hundreds of miles into the countryside and have no established way of getting there. Some buses, however, have been hired to take migrants closer to home, and Brewer visited one of them and spoke to its driver. “It’s really a unique perspective, I think, and just some of the things that we’ve witnessed since we’ve been here,” he said, adding stories ranged from familial hardships to reports that more than a dozen people have been burnt alive by Mexican cartels for failing to pay for passage. “It’s just pretty tough to see and witness and watch.” When a U.S. military plane arrived carrying migrants, Brewer was on the tarmac. HEGSETH, HOMAN TOUR BORDER “We were able to provide them with food and, most importantly, with Bibles, and we preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” Brewer said the Guatemalan Migration Authority is focusing its efforts on children ages 8 and under. Many of these children have been “lied to,” Brewer said. “They’re told it’s their life’s mission to migrate to the U.S. illegally,” he said, recounting stories told by some returning migrants of children on the backs of cartel coyotes and others drowning in rivers. Then-Vice President Kamala Harris made her own trip to Guatemala City in March 2024, seeking to understand the “root causes” of illegal migration. “When you look at the root causes, we’re also looking at issues of corruption. Again, we’re looking at the issue of climate resiliency and then the concern about a lack of economic opportunity,” Harris said in 2021. Brewer rejected that Harris’ work made any difference, saying she and her then-boss’s policies “empowered human traffickers” and that half of Guatemala still lives in extreme poverty with little education. He said the former leadership at the State Department “misguided resources” through USAID, a practice that Trump is now aggressively cutting back on. “We need to first put our resources into addressing the issues that are fueling a multibillion-dollar human trafficking industry. Walls, deportations and enforcement are a must, but educating indigenous populations on the truths of coyotes will deliver a devastating blow to the modern human slave trade,” Brewer said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Guatemala is not enforcing their migration issue in the country. Haitians and Venezuelans are warned of the dangers of migrating, but there is no enforcement at the time.” “There needs to be arrest and enforcement, but they require resources. Guatemala prisons are already overcrowded, and they don’t have immigration beds available for enforcement,” added Brewer, who said he also visited those prisons and saw conditions for himself.

Federal agency in DOGE’s crosshairs played key role in Harris’ strategy to curb migrant crisis

When the Biden administration launched its strategy to tackle “root causes” of migration at the southern border during a time of rapidly rising and historic illegal immigration, the now-frozen United States Agency for International Development (USAID) played a significant role. During the Biden administration, Vice President Kamala Harris was tasked with leading diplomacy in Latin America to tackle the root causes, identified as issues like gang violence, climate change and poverty. It consisted of both government initiatives and funding from private organizations. USAID, which was frozen in recent days over concerns about misspending, played a key role in the distribution of funds. While certain operations have been halted to get a full picture of USAID funding to the region, it is possible to get a glimpse of the help it provided. JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP FROM PLACING 2,200 USAID WORKERS ON LEAVE  In 2021, the first year of the Biden administration, USAID announced Centroamérica Local, a 5-year, $300 million initiative that funded organizations in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to address the root causes of migration to the U.S. “Under this new initiative, Centroamérica Local, USAID intends to invest up to $300 million, subject to the availability of funds, toward engaging, strengthening, and funding local organizations to implement programs to advance sustainable and equitable economic growth, improve governance, fight corruption, protect human rights, improve citizen security, and combat sexual and gender-based violence,” USAID said in a statement at the time. “These programs are being carried out under the Biden-Harris Administration’s Root Causes Strategy and deliver on the Agency’s goal to foster greater engagement with local organizations and communities in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras and advance stability in the region.” More was still to come. TOP DEM STRATEGISTS WARN USAID FUNDING FIGHT IS A ‘TRAP’ FOR THE PARTY In 2022, USAID announced programs in Central America to end gender-based violence, including a $6.5 million program in Guatemala and a $2.7 million program in Honduras. That built off a program announced in El Salvadaor. In March last year, Harris met with Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo and announced a planned investment of $135 million in USAID funding, alongside $170 million to aid development, economic health and security assistance. Included in the announcement was an expansion of the Central American Service Corps, which was created in 2022 at the Summit of Americas. The expanded program was funded by USAID and aimed to reach 2,800 people seen at most risk of migrating by engaging them with volunteer work, employment and training. Also announced for Guatemala was a USAID-implemented “Feed the Future” program to strengthen the capacity of research and education entities to scale agricultural technologies and to support research and education related to “climate smart” agriculture. USAID was also to implement a new “Guatemala Biodiversity Conservation” program to promote the conservation of biodiversity and strengthen protected areas and other areas of ecological importance. In September, USAID announced an additional $10.75 million in funding for Guatemala. USAID STAFFERS STUNNED, ANGERED BY TRUMP ADMIN’S DOGE SHUTDOWN OF $40B AGENCY That came after USAID invested over $153 million in Guatemala in 2023 to allegedly support the government in efforts to strengthen democracy and improve opportunities. According to a release, funded activities included “integrated rural and agricultural development, sustainable economic growth, support for the construction of climate-resilient infrastructure, and digital development and e-governance.” Harris was dogged by the “border czar” title throughout her unsuccessful presidential bid as she largely dropped the root causes emphasis and instead focused on the Biden administration’s efforts to secure the border. President Donald Trump’s administration has demonstrated a skepticism of the root causes strategy, both in its leaning in on border security and interior enforcement and also its moves to cut or freeze funding abroad. In his first week in office, Trump also rescinded Biden’s 2021 executive order creating a “comprehensive regional framework to address the causes of migration, to manage migration throughout North and Central America and to provide safe and orderly processing of asylum seekers at the United States border.” He also revoked an executive order to rebuild and enhance programs to resettle refugees and plan for “the impact of climate change on migration.”