J.D. Vance, the Vice President and a practicing Catholic, is expressing disappointment towards a group of American Bishops who are raising concerns about a recent directive that permits immigration authorities to conduct raids in churches.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order that removes protections from sensitive places like churches and schools.  Â
This directive grants Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other law enforcement agencies the authority to carry out raids and detain undocumented immigrants within church premises.
‘We empowered law enforcement to enforce the law everywhere,’ Vance told CBS News host Margaret Brennan in an interview that aired Sunday morning.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement criticizing several of Trump’s initial executive orders, particularly those related to the treatment of immigrants and refugees.
‘Some provisions… are deeply troubling and will have negative consequences, many of which will harm the most vulnerable among us,’ the influential Catholic group wrote in a statement on Trump’s orders.
But the vice president says that they are more worried about their ‘bottom line’ than the actual policy changes involving undocumented migrants seeking refuge at Catholic churches.
Vice President J.D. Vance is ‘heartbroken’ by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops releasing a statement slamming President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration and the border
The first Military deportation flights left from the U.S. this week after Donald Trump kicked off his plans to remove illegal immigrants from the country
‘As a practicing Catholic, I was actually heartbroken by that statement,’ he said in his first post-inauguration interview on CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday program.Â
The father-of-three continued: ‘I think the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has, frankly, not been a good partner in common sense immigration enforcement that the American people voted for, and I hope, again, as a devout Catholic, that they’ll do better.’
Approximately a dozen of Trump’s Day One actions are addressing migration and the border as well as the illegal immigration crisis.
One order restarted construction of the southern border and shut it down to the flood of illegal crossers seeking asylum. And another initiated the direction of the Defense Department to ‘take full operational control’ of the situation by sending thousands of active duty Army and Marines to the border.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is creating task forces to work with local and state law enforcement to round up and deport illegal immigrants in their communities.Â
‘Of course, if you have a person who is convicted of a violent crime, whether they’re an illegal immigrant or a non-illegal immigrant, you have to go and get that person to protect the public safety,’ Vance insisted of their plans for mass deportation.
‘That’s not unique to immigration,’ the vice president added.
Trump signed at least 10 executive orders on illegal immigration, including one that removes protections from sensitive locations like churches and schools and allow immigration enforcement to conduct raids and arrest illegal immigrants
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement on Wednesday slamming Trump’s orders that ‘focused on the treatment of immigrants and refugees.’ It claimed that provisions in the orders ‘are deeply troubling and will have negative consequences’
‘I think that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to actually look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive over $100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns, or are they actually worried about their bottom line?’ he questioned.
‘We’re going to enforce immigration law. We’re going to protect the American people.’
Trump and Vance have reiterated that the priority at the start is rounding up and deporting criminals and those illegal immigrants who have committed some of the most heinous crimes.
Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan said it’s this priority does line-up with their decision to remove protections from churches, courthouses and schools.
‘If the focus and the priority is on criminals, I’m not sure going after an 11-year-old is where you start,’ Slotkin told ABC This Week host Martha Raddatz.
