Defying Trump, Miami Archbishop Celebrates Christmas Mass at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’
Miami’s archbishop spent Christmas Day behind barbed wire — celebrating Mass for migrants in Florida’s infamous “Alligator Alcatraz” camp. It capped a year-long fight for their dignity.
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Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami stood before hundreds of immigrants detained inside Florida’s newest migrant camp on Christmas morning.
In a makeshift chapel behind the chain-link fences of “Alligator Alcatraz,” Wenski celebrated Mass and preached a homily of hope. He drew a direct line between the detainees and the Holy Family: Jesus was born when there was “no room for him in the inn” and soon became a refugee in Egypt — effectively an undocumented migrant.
“The Christmas story is your story,” Wenski told those separated from their loved ones, reminding them that God himself came into the world as a homeless child.

Rosaries and Harleys Open the Gates
At one point, it seemed this Mass would never happen. When Alligator Alcatraz opened in July, detainees were denied access to clergy or sacraments — guards even seized Bibles and told migrants there was “no right to religion” in the camp.
Trump Blocked Mass at Alligator Alcatraz — Then Pope Leo’s Bikers Showed Up
After a month of protest, rosaries, and roaring engines, Archbishop Wenski and the bikers brought Mass back to Alligator Alcatraz.
Wenski was outraged, blasting the policy as an “intentional effort to dehumanize” those being held.
After weeks of getting nowhere by ordinary means, the archbishop took matters into his own hands. On July 20, he hopped on his motorcycle and rode with two dozen Knights of Columbus bikers to the camp’s entrance.
It was an unusual sight: a prelate in a leather vest, backed by rosaries and Harleys, refusing to let the detainees be forgotten.
Within weeks, their persistence paid off. By early August, priests were finally allowed to celebrate Mass inside Alligator Alcatraz. Wenski announced that regular liturgies would continue now that the door was open.
At the first Mass, about 150 detainees attended, grateful to know they were not abandoned.
“Going there and celebrating Mass is one way of affirming them and their humanity,” the archbishop said, emphasizing that these migrants are “not forgotten by God.”
No Christmas Truce from Trump
Just days before Christmas, Archbishop Wenski and Florida’s Catholic bishops implored President Trump to pause immigration raids for the holidays.
“Don’t be the Grinch that stole Christmas,” Wenski warned, urging Trump to let migrant families spend the season together instead of in fear.
No Room at the Trump Inn: White House Rejects Bishops’ Call to Halt Christmas Raids
Echoing Pope Leo, Florida’s top bishop urged Trump: “Don’t be the Grinch” this Christmas. The White House slammed the door anyway.
The White House’s answer was a flat no. Trump’s spokeswoman said immigration enforcement would continue unabated — no mercy, not even on the Lord’s birthday.
This Florida confrontation caps a year of Church–State clashes over migrants. Since Pope Leo XIV’s election in May, the new pontiff has repeatedly condemned Trump’s hardline immigration agenda.
When ICE officials blocked detained Catholics from receiving the Eucharist this fall, Pope Leo blasted the move as a betrayal of Christian values.
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.
Trump’s allies lashed out in turn, smearing the pope as a “woke Marxist” for defending migrant families.
Undeterred, Leo XIV urged U.S. bishops to speak up — and in November they issued a joint message denouncing the “vilification” of immigrants and mass deportations.
“The Church Stands With Migrants” — Bishops’ Video Denouncing Trump-Vance ICE Raids Goes Global
A passionate video condemning the Trump-Vance ICE raids has exploded on social media, amassing over 5 million views worldwide. It may be the most viral Catholic message in U.S. history.
Wenski’s bold stand this Christmas is the kind of witness Pope Leo has been calling for.
At Pope Leo’s Urging, Bishops Issue Historic Rebuke of Trump’s Raids
Nearly all U.S. Catholic bishops united in Baltimore to denounce the Trump administration’s “inhumane” deportation campaign — a near-unanimous, unprecedented moral stand against a sitting president.
On Christmas Day in the Everglades, the Church did what the state would not: it made room at the inn for the poor and the persecuted.
Wenski’s simple liturgy in a prison camp showed where the Church stands — with the Holy Family among the outcasts, not with Herod in the palace.
There may have been no room in Trump’s America for these migrants, but on this holy morning the Body of Christ found a home in Alligator Alcatraz.
To my surprise, the Advent Reflection Series became one of the most widely read and shared parts of Letters from Leo in 2025.
Many of you wrote to tell me that these reflections helped steady your hearts during a difficult year for our nation — one marked by political division, anxiety, and real moral uncertainty.
Because of that response, I’ve decided to make these reflections a permanent part of this work.
Beginning this week, I’ll publish a weekly Sunday reflection, rooted in the Mass readings of the day, and written to help us think more clearly about what it means to follow Jesus in the middle of today’s political realities — not by retreating from public life, and not by baptizing any party or ideology, but by letting the Gospel form our conscience, our courage, and our compassion.
These reflections will be available to all paid subscribers, as a small but sincere way of saying thank you for making Letters from Leo possible. The first edition is below.
God Entered History Through a Refugee Family
Christmas is a season that reveals who is saved: the displaced outside our walls and the unwanted inside them.
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The work you are doing on substack is making a difference. I think you may have received a new calling.😇 It has given me hope in this dark time and steady me through lung cancer.
I thought Alligator Alcatraz had been shut down???