President Donald Trump‘s “border czar” Tom Homan, the former director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the first Trump administration, is amplifying a press release on X distributed by the conservative nonprofit legal organization Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) titled, ‘Victory! Religious Groups Fail to Block Trump.’
Mennonite Church USA and other religious groups are suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for its policy regarding immigration law enforcement actions at “protected areas” including places of worship.
(Note: “protected areas” also include primary schools, hospitals and universities.).
IRLI filed a brief in the case urging the D.C. federal district court to deny a preliminary injunction, which it did on Friday.
NEW from @IRLILaw: Victory! Religious Groups Fail to Block Trumphttps://t.co/t1FJXU9SoD
— Immigration Reform Law Institute (@IRLILaw) April 14, 2025
Note: IRLI executive director Dale L. Wilcox has called for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients to “self-deport,” saying, “DACA-pushers missed their mark because the best thing for these ‘kids’ isn’t to stay here and push down blue-collar wages, but to return to Latin America and reform it. Ending DACA will help them deal with what’s really the root of the problem: corruption south of the border.”
MAGA-supporting Christians are voicing their approval of the IRLI legal news, as one replied: “Good. A reckoning is coming for America’s churches, and they’re not going to like it.” Another added: “As a Christian I can’t see how these religious groups can allow criminals to hide in their churches.”
In this Follow Jesus-inspired Epiphany blog, Rachel Ringenberg Miller shares about an anti-immigration flier that was left around her neighborhood and how it reminded her that Jesus, and many of our ancestors, was an immigrant. https://t.co/yPcgHwMIlY
— Mennonite Church USA (@MennonitesUSA) January 6, 2025
Note: In January, Mennonites USA amplified a “Jesus-inspired Epiphany blog” entry written by Rachel Ringenberg Miller, who wrote about “an anti-immigration flier that was left around her neighborhood and how it reminded her that Jesus, and many of our ancestors, was an immigrant, who fled danger and persecution.”
The flyer included contact information from “Trinity White Knights from the Ku Klux Klan,” with an address in Kentucky.
The Roman Catholic Church has also criticized the Trump administration regarding its mass deportation program. In an open letter to U.S. Catholic bishops, Pope Francis said those who entered the U.S. illegally should not be treated as criminals.
Homan replied to the Pope’s comments during a press conference and said: “I’ve got harsh words for the Pope. I say this as a lifelong Catholic. He ought to focus on his work and leave enforcement to us. He’s got a wall around the Vatican, does he not?”