WATCH: Homan compares Vatican walls to US border in rebuke of pope’s deportation criticism

February 26, 2026

From the Washington Examiner: Border czar Tom Homan dismissed Pope Leo’s criticism of President Donald Trump’s deportation policies on Wednesday by comparing the fortified walls around the Vatican to the United States’s own border security efforts.

During a brief encounter with reporters, Homan was asked about Leo’s comments condemning mass deportations, including that the U.S. is doing them in a “disrespectful” way. Homan said Vatican City itself is a walled state and that the pontiff should focus on the Catholic Church’s “own issues.”

“The Catholic faith is always in support of law enforcement, always has been, and he should be, too. … You ought to be fixing the Catholic Church because they got their own issues,” Homan said. “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.”

The report notes that just hours prior to President Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, a group of U.S. Catholic bishops from border states issued a public statement urging reform of immigration enforcement to “protect families and ensure respect for human dignity.”

The Catholic church has long promoted open borders and called for compassion for migrants, and has its own organization, Catholic Charities, which provides support for migrants, including legal and resettlement services.

Speaking to Breitbart reporter Matthew Perdie, Homan noted that he is a longtime Catholic, but doesn’t agree with the Pope’s open borders policies.

“So, look, what he doesn’t understand is there’s a flip side to illegal immigration. 31% of women get r*ped making that journey. Over 4,000 aliens died making that journey under Joe Biden. A quarter million Americans died of fentanyl because of the open border,” Homan declared.

“When you overwhelm the border patrol, all the bad things happen. Sex trafficking increases, fentanyl increases. Securing the border saves lives,” he added.

WATCH BELOW:

.@realtomhoman tells @perdiexamerica that he’d “be happy to sit down and explain” to Pope Leo XIV what he’s missing in his critiques of Trump’s deportations

“I’m a lifelong Catholic, still a practicing Catholic. Catholic faith is always in support of law enforcement, always has… pic.twitter.com/Neg8JwnBXK

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) February 25, 2026