BREAKING: Pope Leo Meets with American Migrants, Pledges to Stand Up to Trump's Raids

The American pontiff told them, “The Church cannot stay silent before injustice. You stand with me. And I stand with you.”

This morning at the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV met with a small delegation of American migrants carrying an extraordinary gift: the voices of undocumented immigrants from the United States.

Led by Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Celino, and Dylan Corbett of the Hope Border Institute, the group presented the pope with a video and a bundle of handwritten letters from migrant families living under the shadow of President Trump’s renewed deportation crackdown.

The letters, mostly written in Spanish, conveyed a mix of deep fear, pain, and steadfast faith.

“These days we are living with much fear, confusion, and sadness,” one undocumented mother from California wrote, describing how the new policies have upended daily life.

Another Catholic mother confessed, “I have not gone out for two weeks, and when I do go out, I am afraid — even to go to the doctor.”

She pleaded for the Church’s help in practical ways, from providing immigration lawyers to supporting those in detention, and implored Pope Leo to use his influence on their behalf.

In an extraordinary Christian gesture, she even asked for prayers “for Donald Trump, that his heart may be filled with love, compassion, and empathy.”

Other letters echoed these pleas. “I am afraid to go out to work because I could be separated from my family,” one person wrote, urging that “the Pope should speak out openly against the raids and the unjust treatment our community is facing,” and to condemn the hypocrisy of “those in power who call themselves ‘Christians’” while inflicting such fear.

Another writer spoke of “uncertainty, fear, and insecurity” and the desperate hope for “a fair immigration reform.”

Perhaps the most poignant was a tiny note tied to the bundle of letters, addressed simply to “Pope Leo” and begging, “Please listen to the cry of those who are being marginalized.”

It’s a biblical echo of the cry of the poor, and it did not fall on deaf ears.

Upon receiving the letters and hearing their stories, Pope Leo thanked the group and affirmed his closeness to immigrant families.

He told them, “The Church cannot stay silent before injustice. You stand with me. And I stand with you.”

During his first days in office, he called on the Church to be “ever attentive to the cry of the poor, the needy, and the marginalized,” and today he demonstrated that attentiveness in person.

Pope Leo’s encounter with these migrants comes at a time of increasingly public feuds between the Vatican and America’s right-wing nationalist movement.

In fact, the pope’s advocacy for immigrants has made headlines — and ruffled political feathers — throughout Donald Trump’s second term.

Just days ago, at a Mass for the Jubilee of Migrants, Leo told 10,000 faithful that “we must open our arms and hearts to [migrants], welcoming them as brothers and sisters, and being for them a presence of consolation and hope.”

He insists migrants must not be met with “the coldness of indifference or the stigma of discrimination.”

Yet such words of compassion have provoked anger among some in the MAGA camp.

Last week, the pope even questioned whether one can truly be pro-life while mistreating migrants. “Someone who says, ‘I’m against abortion but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants who are in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life,” Leo told reporters.

That remark, highlighting the contradiction in championing unborn life while devaluing the lives of immigrant families, sparked fury among Trump’s allies and conservative Catholic commentators.

Far from backing down, Pope Leo has stood firm, effectively calling out what he sees as a distortion of Christian values. He continues to echo the teaching of his predecessor, the late Pope Francis, that “this is not just about migrants” but about reaffirming the God-given dignity of every person.

Bishop Seitz — who helped deliver the immigrants’ letters — has described the current climate along the border as one of pervasive terror: “People are afraid to go out for groceries. They’re afraid to go to church… I really don’t believe fear adequately describes it. It’s terror,” the Texas prelate observed.

Those fears reverberate in the letters now in Pope Leo’s hands. But so does an unquenchable hope. The Catholics who wrote to the pope have not lost faith in the Church’s solidarity.

They ask him to raise his voice with theirs, to pray and intervene for families being separated, and to help “protect the families who remain.” In responding to them, Pope Leo XIV is doing exactly that — raising a moral voice that transcends politics.

As the meeting ended, the pope offered his blessing and a pledge to carry their cries into the halls of power. In a time when American politics is polarized and immigrants are often demonized, Pope Leo has positioned himself as a champion of the vulnerable.

His American papacy — itself the product of complicated immigrant roots — is reminding the world that compassion is not a partisan issue, but a Christian one.

The sight of the vicar of Christ gently receiving those letters this morning underscores a profound truth: no one should be mistreated because they’re an immigrant, and the Church must stand fearlessly with those being marginalized — even if it puts the pope on a collision course with a president.

This remarkable encounter in Rome, born of pain but marked by hope, shows Pope Leo choosing the Gospel side of that feud — in solidarity with what he calls the “messengers of hope” at the margins, and unafraid to clash with earthly powers on their behalf.

Leo has chosen not to be silent, and we must do the same. The immigrants who wrote to him are not merely seeking pity; they are demanding the moral courage the Gospel requires. Their witness reminds us that faith without action is hollow — and silence, in the face of injustice, is complicity.

That’s precisely why this publication exists: to stand up for authentic Christian values in an age when too many mistake cruelty for conviction.

Letters from Leo is open to anyone who wants to be informed and inspired by our pope — and to turn that inspiration into action that leaves America and the world more just, less cold, and more alive with hope.

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Thank you for reading. I’ll see you on the road.