American Bishops' War With Trump Admin Is Heating Up
Last week, the USCCB, the official assembly of the Catholic Church in the United States, slammed U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for rescinding a policy that gave guidance on the care, custody and documentation of pregnant women they encounter.
"It is deeply troubling and inexcusable that measures intended to ensure the basic safety of pregnant mothers and their young children while in government custody could be rescinded with such indifference toward the vulnerability of those involved," said Bishop Mark J. Seitz, of El Paso, Texas, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Migration.
CPB Acting Commissioner Pete Flores issued the memo, which was circulated internally but not publicly announced, on May 5, revealing that four policies were determined "either obsolete or misaligned with current Agency guidance and immigration enforcement priorities."
One of them was the 2022 memo "Processing of Pregnant, and Postpartum Noncitizens and Infants," which lays out guidelines for CPB, which include offering a medical assessment to all pregnant women and making sure breast-feeding mothers have access to privacy and rest facilities.
"This decision is all the more concerning as the Administration simultaneously ramps up family detention in place of safer, more cost-effective alternatives to detention," Seitz said.
"Let us be clear: protecting pregnant mothers and their children can never be considered 'obsolete.' This principle irrefutably extends to noncitizens in immigration detention, each of whom possesses an inviolable, God-given dignity that must be respected.
"We urge the Administration to reissue guidance that adequately reflects and affirms the increased standard of care due to this vulnerable population while in government custody."
Newsweek has contacted CBP via email for comment.
The memo does stress that CBP agents should continue to uphold the care guidelines laid out in all remaining policies.
"The safety of all who we encounter during operations remains a top priority," it says. "All CBP personnel are expected to treat those in Agency custody in a professional and respectful manner."
It comes amid an ongoing civil case in which the USCCB is suing the Trump administration over its suspension of refugee programs.
In a lawsuit filed in February, the USCCB said it has worked with the government for "nearly half a century" to help "refugees who are fleeing persecution, instability, and oppression and have come to the United States as a place of refuge and hope."
The USCCB said that the spending freeze means the organization "faces irreparable damage to its longstanding refugee resettlement programs and its reputation and relationship with its subrecipients and the refugee populations it serves."
Trump argued in January that his mission to "realign the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program" is because "the United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans."
Trump's relationship with the Catholic Church has made headlines recently, following the election of the first American pope, Leo XIV, this month.
While Leo is in the "middle of the road" in politics," he is "not happy with what's going on with immigration," his brother John Prevost tole The New York Times.
Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity that he is open to talking to Leo about immigration and has also said he wants Leo's other brother, Louis Prevost, "a major MAGA fan" to visit the White House.
Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, traveled to Rome for a private audience with Leo, after attending his inaugural Mass in St. Peter's Square last weekend.
There was already tension between the church, to which 53 million U.S. adults belong, according to U.S. Census Bureau data from 2024, and the Trump administration, after Leo's predecessor, Pope Franics, rebuked Vance for invoking a "Christian concept" of extending love to your family and then fellow citizens before the rest of the world.
But Francis wrote in a letter to Vance: "Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups. The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the 'good Samaritan' (cf. Lk 10:25-37), that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception."
America's relationship with the Catholic Church has long been important. Newsweek broke down the behind-the-scenes role it has played in American diplomacy and culture here.
"Much of the future approach of the USCCB to the White House will depend also on the signs they will receive from Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican in the next few weeks and months," theology and religious studies professor Massimo Faggioli told Newsweek.
"It's something the White House will pay more attention to. All this in the context of a Catholic VP, JD Vance, who is really trying hard to justify anything that Trump and members of his Cabinet do," the Villanova University academic said. "Vance's pitch is designed for a Catholic audience and the bishops know it."
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