Pope Leo XIV Denounces Trump-Vance Decision to Block Eucharist from ICE Detainees

After ICE refuses to allow detained migrants to receive the Eucharist, Pope Leo calls on Trump and Vance to respect migrants‘ dignity and religious liberty.

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(9:45 PM EST UPDATE: Vice President JD Vance has responded to our article. His comments are below.)

There he goes again. The first American pope has once again denounced the Trump-Vance Administration’s treatment of undocumented migrants in the United States.

On Tuesday night, in response to ICE’s refusal to allow detained migrants outside of Chicago to receive the Eucharist, Pope Leo XIV called on President Trump and Vice President Vance to respect the dignity and religious liberty of migrants in the United States:

“Jesus says very clearly at the end of the world, we’re going to be asked, you know, how did you receive the foreigner? Did you receive him and welcome him or not? And I think that there’s a deep reflection that needs to be made in terms of what’s happening,” Pope Leo said.

“Many people who’ve lived for years and years and years, never causing problems, have been deeply affected by what’s going on right now,” he added.

Leo, the first U.S.-born pope, has previously decried the federal government’s treatment of immigrants caught up in a hard-line crackdown that has roiled cities across the country.

In reference to the Chicago ICE inmates, he said on Tuesday that the religious rights of detainees need to be considered. “I would certainly invite the authorities to allow pastoral workers to attend to the needs of those people,” he said.

“Many times they’ve been separated from their families for a good amount of time; no one knows what’s happening, but their own spiritual needs should be attended to.”

A delegation of clergy, including a Catholic bishop, tried to bring the inmates holy Communion on November 1, the Catholic feast of All Saints, but were denied access to the facility.

When asked for a response, an unnamed White House spokesperson told Letters from Leo “the pope doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

I asked the same White House spokesperson if President Trump has ever read Jesus’s words in the Gospel of St. Matthew about helping the stranger. They declined to comment.

This enraged Letters from Leo reader Vice President JD Vance who tweeted at me