‘They don’t know what they’re talking about’: Trump’s border czar dares Pope Leo to walk a mile in his bloodstained boots
Another Trump-loyalist attacks the Pope.
Tom Homan just issued a blunt challenge to Pope Leo. The border czar, who spent 40 years on the front lines, told reporters outside the White House that if the pope spent a single shift in his boots, he would stop calling illegal immigration a victimless crime.
According to Fox News, Homan said, “I wish they’d stay out of immigration, they don’t know what they’re talking about. If they wore my shoes for 40 years, and talked to a 9-year-old girl that got raped multiple times, or stood in the back of a tractor trailer with 19 dead aliens at my feet, including a 5-year-old boy that baked to death, if they understood the atrocities that happened on the open border, I think their opinion would change.”
The border czar made it clear he’s not shutting the door on dialogue. He said he would “welcome discussion with any of them,” meaning Vatican leaders, because he believes they fundamentally misunderstand the human cost of unchecked migration. “Human traffickers are out of business, right? The cartels are going bankrupt because of that secure border,” he said. “I wish they’d understand that. Because if they did, I think they’d have a different opinion.”
Homan’s latest remarks come after a very public spat between Trump and the Pope
Pope Leo has criticized the administration’s immigration enforcement tactics, calling some of them “extremely disrespectful” and even violent. He hasn’t called for open borders, but he has urged the U.S. to treat migrants with dignity. “When people are living good lives, and many of them for 10, 15, 20 years, to treat them in a way that is extremely disrespectful, to say the least, and there’s been some violence, unfortunately, I think that the bishops have been very clear in what they said,” Leo said.
Trump fired back on Truth Social, calling the pope “WEAK on Crime” and “terrible for Foreign Policy.” He accused Leo of catering to the “Radical Left” and said the pope should focus on being a spiritual leader instead of a politician. “It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church,” Trump wrote.
The president also took issue with Leo’s stance on the Iran conflict. “We don’t like a pope that’s going to say that it’s OK to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters. “We don’t want a pope that says crime is OK in our cities. I don’t like it. I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo. He’s a very liberal person, and he’s a man that doesn’t believe in stopping crime.”
Leo didn’t back down. “I have no fear of the Trump administration,” he told reporters. “The things that I say are certainly not meant as attacks on anyone. I don’t think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing.”
He went on to say, “I will continue to speak out loudly against war, looking to promote peace, promoting dialogue and multilateral relationships among the states to look for just solutions to problems. Too many people are suffering in the world today. Too many innocent people are being killed. And I think someone has to stand up and say there’s a better way.”
This isn’t the first time Homan has clashed with the Vatican
Last year, he dismissed Leo’s criticism of deportation policies by pointing out that Vatican City itself is a walled state. “The Catholic faith is always in support of law enforcement, always has been, and he should be, too,” Homan said according to the Washington Examiner. “You ought to be fixing the Catholic Church because they got their own issues. Bottom line is, if we jumped the wall at the Vatican, the penalties for doing that are much harder than the ones here in the United States.”
Homan has consistently argued that the pope and other religious leaders don’t grasp the full picture. He’s said they ignore the “flip side to illegal immigration,” like the women who get raped during the journey or the thousands who die trying to cross the border. “When you overwhelm the border patrol, all the bad things happen,” he said. “Securing the border saves lives.”
The border czar, who calls himself a lifelong Catholic, has praised Trump’s immigration policies as life-saving. “Where President Trump had the most secure border in the lifetime of this nation, right now, lives are being saved,” he said. He credits Trump’s approach with putting human traffickers out of business and driving cartels toward bankruptcy.
But the debate isn’t just about policy; it’s also about morality
Earlier this year, a group of U.S. Catholic bishops from border states urged reform to protect families and uphold human dignity. They argued that enforcement tactics should respect the people they affect, especially those who have lived in the U.S. for decades. Leo has echoed that sentiment, saying the Gospel’s message shouldn’t be “abused” to justify harsh treatment of migrants.
Homan, however, sees it differently. He believes the Vatican’s stance overlooks the real victims – those who suffer at the hands of traffickers, cartels, and the dangers of the journey itself. His challenge to Leo is simple: spend a day in his world, and then tell him illegal immigration is victimless.
(Featured image: Gage Skidmore)
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