The Catholic Bishops Who Wrote a Scorching Brief Against Trump
Children born to undocumented immigrants, the bishops warned, would face an “impossible choice” if the court redefines citizenship: they could either live a diminished life in America, “forever being an underclass citizen, with limited access to the necessities of life, such as healthcare, education, housing, and the right to vote,” or, alternatively, they could be “forced to migrate to a country that they have never known and in which they may not be welcome.”
The Catholic Church’s brief is an important antidote to the Trump administration’s efforts to portray itself as the leader of “Western civilization,” which it often defines in racialized and ahistorical terms. “We are bound to one another by the deepest bonds that nations could share, forged by centuries of shared history, Christian faith, culture, heritage, language, ancestry, and the sacrifices our forefathers made together for the common civilization to which we have fallen heir,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a European security conference last month.
Other references are much cruder. Stephen Miller, Trump’s top domestic policy aide and the architect of his mass-deportation campaign, has called on the conservative movement to “take all necessary and rational steps to save Western civilization.” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has told supporters that “Western Christianity” is under siege by “dangerous and godless foreign ideologies that sow doubt, confusion and death.”