Thomas Reese SJ

With an estimated 1 in every 5 US Catholics either threatened by deportation or living in a household with someone else who is, US Catholic bishops have ‘pushed back’ against the fiercely anti-immigrant Trump administration since January 2025 – according to the Jesuit commentator Thomas Reese, writing in the National Catholic Reporter (NCR).

“The use of sweeping generalizations to denigrate any group, such as describing all undocumented immigrants as ‘criminals’ or ‘invaders,’ to deprive them of protection under the law, is an affront to God, who has created each of us in his own image.” 

This protest from the RC US bishops in January 2025 was followed by others protesting government actions that bore down most heavily on the most vulnerable.

Other bishop protests included:

• the administration’s plans to spend $38 billion to double federal immigration detention capacity;
• tax cuts that largely favour wealthier persons … “made possible through cuts to healthcare and food for families struggling to make ends meet”;
• The US exiting the Paris climate change treaty for a second time;
• the looming end of a Nuclear Arms agreement banning nuclear test explosions;
• the Trump threat to invade Greenland in January 2026.

The article finished by arguing that Democratic party activists who campaign against freedom of conscience for medical personnel who oppose abortion could nevertheless deter Catholic bishops from supporting that party in upcoming mid-term congressional elections – despite their misgivings about the current administration.

To read the complete Reese article in NCR, click here.