White House border advisor Tom Homan lambasted the Catholic Church on Friday over its stance against the Trump administration\u2019s mass deportations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Catholic Church is wrong, I\u2019m sorry,\u201d Homan told reporters<\/a> outside the White House. \u201cI\u2019m saying it not only as the border czar, I\u2019m saying it as a Catholic.\u201d<\/p>\n Homan described himself as a \u201clifelong Catholic\u201d and said U.S. Catholic bishops were sending the wrong message when they issued a rare statement<\/a> supporting immigrants and opposing the \u201dindiscriminate mass deportations of people.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAccording to them, the message we should send to the world is if you cross the border illegally, which is a crime, don\u2019t worry about it,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you get an order removal by a federal judge after due process, don\u2019t worry about it because there shouldn\u2019t be mass deportations.\u201d<\/p>\n Typically, illegal entry into the United States is a civil offense. But subsequent violations can be a felony, potentially resulting in fines or prison time.<\/p>\n Homan claimed immigrants are using up their life savings to pay criminal organizations to help them cross into the country illegally, which he said has led to thousands of deaths. He said illegal immigration also has contributed to fentanyl overdoses in the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cSecure borders save lives,\u201d Homan said. \u201cI wish the Catholic Church could understand that.\u201d<\/p>\n Homan, who describes himself as a border czar, said the bishops should focus their time on \u201cfixing the Catholic Church.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a right to secure our borders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The criticism came two days after the U.S. Catholic bishops issued a special statement<\/a> during this week\u2019s annual United States Conference of Catholic Bishops gathering in Baltimore. It was the first time since 2013 that the bishops collectively voiced their concerns over an issue. The last time they did so was in response to the federal government\u2019s contraceptive mandate.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement,\u201d the statement read. \u201cWe are concerned by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care.\u201d<\/p>\n The bishops called for immigration reform and said they were troubled by threats against the \u201csanctity of houses of worship and special nature of hospitals and schools.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement,\u201d the statement read. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"White House border advisor Tom Homan lambasted the Catholic Church on Friday over its stance against the Trump…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[27481,7366,32890,34148,3982,3979,48,52,51,34152,47,50,49,34151,592,32888,315,34149,34150,435,2805],"class_list":["post-54583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-catholic-church","tag-criticism","tag-fear","tag-homan","tag-immigrant","tag-immigration-raid","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-life-saving","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mass-deportation","tag-people","tag-rare-statement","tag-time","tag-trump-border-czar","tag-u-s-catholic-bishop","tag-united-states","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}