Pope Leo XIV used his first diplomatic audience to call on world governments to respect the dignity of migrants—a stark contrast to the Trump administration’s increasingly callous immigration practices.
Saying it was the responsibility of government leaders to work to build “harmonious and peaceful civil societies,” the pontiff warned the Vatican diplomatic corps: “No one is exempted from striving to ensure respect for the dignity of every person, especially the most frail and vulnerable, from the unborn to the elderly, from the sick to the unemployed, citizens and immigrants alike.”
“My own story is that of a citizen, the descendant of immigrants, who in turn chose to emigrate,” said Leo, 69, who was born in Chicago but lived for many years in Peru as a missionary.
The pontiff’s paternal grandparents emigrated to Chicago from France, while his mother’s side of the family has Creole roots.
His maternal grandfather was born in Haiti and later emigrated to the New Orleans area. Census records list both his maternal grandparents as “mulatto,” an outdated term to describe people of mixed African and European ancestry, before they too moved to Chicago.
Before he was chosen last week to replace the late Pope Francis, then-Cardinal Robert Prevost had criticized the Trump administration’s immigration rhetoric and policy.
Last month, Leo shared a social media post calling out Trump and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele for laughing together in the Oval Office over El Salvador’s agreement to house U.S. immigration detainees in Bukele’s notorious CECOT mega prison.
About 250 Venezuelan and Salvadoran “gang members” were deported to CECOT—a massive prison complex where inmates are kept in their cells twenty-three and a half hours per day and denied contact with their families or attorneys—without being given court hearings.
One of the men—Maryland dad Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is married to a U.S. citizen with whom he shares a disabled 5-year-old son—was sent to El Salvador due to an “administrative error.”
Instead of bringing him home, Trump brought Bukele to the Oval Office, where both men tried to claim they were somehow powerless to release Abrego Garcia.
Another alleged “gang member” sent to CECOT was Andry Romero, a gay makeup artist and asylum-seeker who was arrested when he showed up for his asylum appointment.
During a congressional hearing on Wednesday, Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia asked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem if the administration could at least do a wellness check on Romero, who hasn’t been heard from since he was sent to prison.
“Would you commit to just letting his mother know—as a mother, to mother—if Andry is alive? Garcia asked in a viral exchange. “His mother just wants to know if he is alive. Can we check and do a wellness check on him?”
Noem refused.
Andry Romero, a young gay man, was given an asylum appointment by the U.S. Government. When he showed up to the appointment we kidnapped him and sent him to a foreign prison.I asked Secretary Noem to check if he’s alive. Her response was shameful. pic.twitter.com/rQTkgFuNO2
— Congressman Robert Garcia (@RepRobertGarcia) May 14, 2025
As part of the administration’s crackdown on “illegal” immigration, the government has also deported U.S. citizens, deported a man who had been granted legal refugee status, detained permanent legal residents, and arrested a Harvard medical researcher over some frog embryos.
Pope Leo’s call to treat immigrants with respect follows in the footsteps of the late Pope Francis, who famously told his followers to “build bridges, not walls,” both literally and figuratively.
When Trump announced his plans for a southern border wall during his first term, Francis said that anyone who thought of only building walls and not bridges “is not Christian.”
One person, however, who wasn’t in the audience Friday to hear Leo’s message was Trump’s nominee for ambassador to the Holy See, Brian Burch. Senate Democrats held up his nomination this week as part of a blanket hold on nominees in response to the Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill, the Catholic News Agency reported.
Republican lawmakers aim to cut $880 billion in funding to Medicaid and other programs that help the poor, leading to millions of people losing their health insurance, the Associated Press reported. The savings would be used to fund tax cuts that would primarily benefit wealthy Americans and business investors, according to Bloomberg.
That, too, would seem to go against Leo’s remarks from Friday.
“All of us in the course of our lives can find ourselves healthy or sick, employed or unemployed, living in our native land or in a foreign country, yet our dignity always remains unchanged: It is the dignity of a creature willed and loved by God,” he said.
Vice President JD Vance is nevertheless planning to fly to Rome to attend the pope’s inauguration mass on Sunday.
The post Pope Leo Sets Up Trump Showdown With Demand About Migrants appeared first on The Daily Beast.
