Santa Fe, New Mexico, Archbishop John C. Wester said while nations may regulate their borders, Catholic teaching requires that all policies and rhetoric uphold the inherent dignity of migrants and avoid using Scripture as a political weapon.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson had put forth a biblical defense of President Donald Trump's mass deportation efforts Feb. 3 after a reporter asked him to respond to Pope Leo XIV's criticism of mass deportations. The pontiff cited Matthew 25:35, in which Jesus Christ speaks about those who will inherit the kingdom of God, saying "[when I was] a stranger and you welcomed me."
In response, Johnson, a Southern Baptist, said immigration is not "frowned upon" in the Bible but instead welcomed, and "we're going to welcome the sojourner and love our neighbor as ourself." However, Johnson said that biblical command to welcome the stranger falls on "individuals" instead of "civil authorities," which Wester said is contrary to Christian ethics.
Johnson said civil authorities maintain a divine right to establish immigration laws that maintain order. He called national borders and walls "biblical." He said God "allowed us to set up our civil societies and have separate nations."
"When someone comes into your country, comes into your nation, they do not have the right to change its laws or to change a society," he said. "They're expected to assimilate."
The speaker cited Romans 13, in which St. Paul instructs Christians to be "subordinate to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God."
Johnson said there was not proper order under former President Joe Biden and criticized him for the number of unlawful border crossings, which he said included "many dangerous people." He said borders are "good and right," not because "we hate the people on the outside" but because "we love the people on the inside."
"We should love our neighbor as ourself as individuals," he said. "But the civil authority and the government has to maintain the law, and that is biblical and it's right and it's just."
Archbishop calls comments 'deeply concerning'
In a Feb. 6 statement, Wester — whose archdiocese is near the southern U.S. border — said "it is deeply concerning when theological language and sacred texts are used to diminish the fundamental dignity of human beings created in the image of God."
Wester said Catholic teaching acknowledges the right of governments to manage their borders but that the right "is never absolute" and policies must "reflect the inherent dignity of every person, and must be ordered toward justice, mercy, and the common good."
The archbishop said those with power have "a greater duty … to protect the vulnerable" and "not to treat them as political fodder."
"To suggest that compassion, dignity, and respect for the stranger are merely personal virtues rather than obligations of society betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of Christian ethics," the archbishop said.
"The Gospel is not a collection of sound bites for political advantage; it is the call to love our neighbors as ourselves, to defend the defenseless, and to remember that every human being bears the imprint of God," he continued. "Reducing Scripture to a political tool undermines its transformative power and our shared humanity."
Wester said the national right to regulate borders "must be balanced with the call to show compassion, protect human dignity, and seek just and humane solutions" and that "strong policies and humane treatment are not mutually exclusive."
"In fact, justice demands both," the archbishop said. "Let us pray for our leaders that they may be guided by wisdom, informed by truth, and moved by the love and mercy of Christ, who came not to condemn but to call us into communion with all people."
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that prosperous nations have an obligation, "to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner." The immigrant has an obligation "to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws, and to assist in carrying civic burdens."
"Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions," it adds.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) voted 216-5 in November to adopt a special message that expresses opposition to "the indiscriminate mass deportation of people." A November 2025 poll from EWTN News and RealClear Opinion Research found that 54% of Catholics support "broad scale" deportations, while only 30% oppose it and 17% neither support nor oppose it.
