Trump’s Border Czar, Who Defied the Pope, Snared in FBI Bribery Sting
Tom Homan — longtime critic of Pope Francis and Catholic bishops — was allegedly caught on tape taking $50,000 in cash.
Tom Homan — President Trump’s hand-picked “border czar” and outspoken Catholic critic — is now engulfed in a scandal that underscores MAGA’s Catholic problem.
The hardline immigration advisor, known for lashing out at Pope Francis and U.S. bishops over their pro-immigrant stance, was reportedly caught accepting a $50,000 bribe from undercover FBI agents in September 2024.
In the FBI sting, complete with hidden cameras rolling, Homan allegedly promised future government contracts in exchange for a bag of cash.
The Justice Department under Trump quietly shut down the probe — calling it a “deep state” witch hunt — even though agents had him on tape with the money in hand.
Homan denies any wrongdoing, dismissing the bribery evidence as “nothing to it.”
The irony is impossible to ignore: a man who presents himself as a law-and-order Catholic was caught betraying both the law and his faith’s morals in one fell swoop.
This bombshell comes on the heels of an extraordinary rebuke from Pope Francis earlier this year. In February, just months before his passing, Francis sent an open letter to the U.S. bishops condemning Trump’s new mass-deportation plan.
The pope warned that any policy “built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly.”
He even cautioned U.S. Church leaders not to be duped by the “fake Christianity” of political strongmen masquerading as defenders of faith.
Homan’s response? Contempt.
The former ICE director — himself a Catholic — publicly blasted Pope Francis’s plea, essentially telling the Holy Father to mind his own business.
“I wish he’d stick to the Catholic Church and fix that and leave border enforcement to us,” Homan snapped.
In one breath, he invoked his lifelong Catholicism and in the next, he told the pope to butt out, even taunting that Francis “has a wall around the Vatican” so should stay out of U.S. border policy.
Homan’s disdain for Catholic leaders didn’t stop at the Vatican.
Over the summer, immigration agents in California detained immigrants on church grounds, prompting Bishop Alberto Rojas of San Bernardino to protest that it “is not of the Gospel of Jesus Christ” for worshipers to live in fear.
Rather than show any concern, Homan and the Department of Homeland Security escalated their feud with the Church: Homan flat-out accused Bishop Rojas of lying about ICE trespassing on Catholic property
The climate of fear Homan helped create was so intense that for the first time in U.S. history, a bishop formally lifted the Sunday Mass obligation — not due to pandemic or war, but due to ICE raids.
In Trump-Vance’s America, Catholics were literally too afraid to worship. That is the pastoral crisis leaders like Rojas faced while Homan derided them.
Now the self-appointed guardian of American borders stands accused of the very corruption and lawlessness he once claimed to fight.
Homan’s alleged bribe-taking — complete with envelopes of cash at a D.C. eatery — reveals a stunning hypocrisy.
He lambasted the Church’s Gospel-driven defense of immigrants while secretly selling promises of government favors to the highest bidder.
No wonder Catholic bishops (and two popes!) have been warning about the moral bankruptcy at play in Donald Trump’s White House.
Pope Francis’s prophetic words ring truer than ever: what is built on brute force and lies “begins badly and will end badly.”
Homan’s fall from grace is a cautionary tale — one that should spur us to ask who really stands for truth, and who is merely wrapping greed and cruelty in the trappings of faith.
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I am a cradle, Catholic, practicing still because I haven’t figured out how to do it right yet!🤣🤣🤣 but I really do not understand how people with such hate can say they are practicing the same faith that I hold dear. Do they not realize that Jesus was a “leftist” during the Roman empire, an authoritarian and cruel regime?
I’m proud of our Pope and Bishops!