Tom Homan — the blunt-talking immigration enforcer dubbed President Donald Trump’s “border czar” — has a message for Pope Leo XIV: stop preaching from afar and come see the chaos up close.
His offer? A front-row seat with ICE.
“I’ll sit down and talk to him, because they’re talking about something they don’t understand,” Homan said at a Turning Point USA gathering, doubling down on his challenge for the Chicago-born pope to tag along on an enforcement ride.
The 64-year-old ICE chief, who makes no secret of his Catholic faith, isn’t buying the Vatican’s moral outrage. The pope has blasted Trump-era immigration policies as “inhumane” and “morally indefensible” — language that plays well in cathedral halls but, according to Homan, ignores what’s happening on the ground.
“An open border is the most inhumane thing you can do,” Homan shot back. “When you make that promise to the whole world, the most vulnerable people will give their life’s savings to the cartels to make that dangerous journey.”
And here’s where the numbers come in — the kind that don’t make it into Sunday homilies. Homan claims illegal crossings have plummeted under Trump’s crackdown, touting a roughly 97% drop. He framed it in stark, visceral terms: “When 97% less people are coming, how many women aren’t being raped? How many children aren’t dying? How many pounds of fentanyl is not getting into kill Americans?”
Meanwhile, the Vatican-versus-White House drama has been simmering. Pope Leo XIV — notably the first American to wear the papal crown — has taken repeated swipes not just at immigration policy but broader geopolitics, including tensions involving Iran. That’s put him on a collision course with Trump, who hasn’t exactly turned the other cheek, branding the pope “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”
Still, in a rare moment of détente, the pontiff recently tried to cool things down, insisting he wasn’t looking to spar with the president. “As it happens, it was looked at as if I was trying to debate the president, which is not in my interest at all,” he said.
Vice President JD Vance — the highest-ranking Catholic in the administration — welcomed the softer tone, noting that while headlines love a feud, reality is “much more complicated.” Complicated is one word for it.
Homan, for his part, isn’t budging. He’s cast Trump not as the villain of the immigration story, but as its unlikely humanitarian — a leader, he says, whose tough policies are saving lives by shutting down the pipeline of exploitation.
“President Trump is a remarkable leader for this nation,” Homan declared.
