Why I Can Be Catholic—and Still Support Mass Deportations
By Chris M. Forte
I’m a Catholic. Not “Catholic-ish.” Not Catholic as a vague cultural identity. I mean Catholic in the full sense: I believe Jesus Christ founded one Church, entrusted authority to the Apostles, and that this Church continues through apostolic succession under the bishops in communion with the successor of St. Peter. I believe in the sacraments. I believe in the Real Presence. I believe the Church is the Bride of Christ.
And I also believe something else—something that has become controversial in American Catholic circles:
I support strict border enforcement.
I support ICE.
And yes, I support mass deportations of illegal immigrants, including those who have been here for decades and built lives here.
That statement alone is enough to get you labeled “anti-Catholic,” “un-Christian,” or “rejecting the Pope.” But I reject that accusation completely. Because the truth is: I can be fully Catholic while disagreeing with bishops and even popes on immigration policy—because immigration policy is not a dogma of the Faith. It is a prudential political issue.
And Catholic theology has always made room for that distinction.
Doctrine vs. Prudence: The Key Distinction
One of the biggest confusions among modern Catholics is the idea that every statement made by a bishop or pope is binding in the same way as doctrine.
It’s not.
The Church has definitive teachings on faith and morals—things like the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, the sanctity of human life, the nature of marriage, the sinfulness of racism, and the obligation to treat all human beings with dignity.
But immigration enforcement is not a revealed doctrine. It is an application of moral principles to complex real-world circumstances.
That means bishops can offer guidance. Popes can exhort. The Church can remind nations of their moral responsibilities.
But none of that automatically means I must adopt a specific immigration policy platform as if it were part of the Nicene Creed.
What the Catechism Actually Says About Immigration
Many Catholics assume the Church teaches “open borders.” It does not.
The Catechism is very clear that wealthy nations have a duty of charity toward foreigners but also that nations have the right to regulate immigration for the common good.
In fact, it explicitly states:
Political authorities may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions.
That is Catholic teaching.
So when someone says “supporting deportations is un-Catholic,” they are simply wrong. Deportation may be harsh. It may be abused. It may be unjust in specific cases. But it is not intrinsically immoral in principle.
A nation has a right to enforce its borders.
And if a nation has laws, it must have consequences for violating them—or else the law becomes meaningless.
My Position: Mass Deportations Are Necessary
I’m not saying this lightly, and I’m not saying it with hatred. I’m saying it because I believe in justice.
If our laws and sovereignty aren’t respected, we have to make them respected—through consequences, through accountability, through enforcement.
Because if we don’t, we set a terrible precedent: that entering illegally is eventually rewarded, and that the system can be ignored with no consequences.
We already saw this with Reagan’s amnesty. It didn’t solve the problem. It encouraged more illegal immigration by proving that if you stay long enough, the political class will eventually cave.
That is not compassion. That is national self-destruction disguised as mercy.
And it is profoundly unfair to legal immigrants—people who waited, paid, followed the rules, passed background checks, did paperwork, and respected the law.
If we let illegal immigration slide because someone “built a life here,” we are essentially punishing those who did it the right way.
That isn’t justice. That’s moral favoritism.
“But They’ve Been Here 20 Years…”
Yes. And that’s exactly why enforcement must be real.
Because the longer we tolerate lawbreaking, the more the law becomes meaningless.
If someone breaks into your house and lives in your spare bedroom for 20 years, it doesn’t become their house. Time does not magically turn illegal acts into moral rights.
I’m not denying that many illegal immigrants are hardworking, family-oriented, and decent people. Some are. Many are.
But being a decent person does not erase the fact that a law was violated and a nation’s sovereignty was disregarded.
If we teach the world that the United States does not enforce its borders, then we are inviting endless chaos—and eventually the collapse of social trust, wages, housing stability, and civic order.
A nation without borders is not a nation.
Supporting ICE Is Not “Anti-Christian”
ICE is treated like a demonic institution in modern political rhetoric. But what is ICE, in reality?
It is simply an enforcement agency tasked with upholding immigration law.
Catholic teaching does not require me to hate law enforcement. It does not require me to oppose deportation. It does not require me to treat every enforcement action as oppression.
The real moral issue is how enforcement is done.
If ICE acts unjustly, cruelly, or with racist contempt, that is sinful and must be condemned.
But the existence of enforcement is not immoral. It is necessary.
Even St. Thomas Aquinas understood that law is an “ordinance of reason for the common good.” A government that refuses to enforce its own laws is not compassionate—it is irresponsible.
Respecting the Bishops Doesn’t Mean Agreeing With Them
Here’s what I believe, plainly:
I respect the bishops.
I respect the Pope.
I listen to them.
I take their moral warnings seriously.
But I am not required to pretend they are political experts.
The Pope is not a border patrol strategist. Bishops are not economists, criminologists, or national security officials.
Their role is to teach moral principles—human dignity, the rejection of racism, the duty to avoid cruelty, the need for compassion.
And I accept those principles.
But the application of those principles—how many migrants, what laws, what enforcement, what deportation policy, what level of tolerance—is prudential judgment.
That means Catholics can disagree without committing heresy.
Disagreement is not rebellion when it is respectful, informed, and rooted in the moral tradition of the Church.
My Catholic Conscience Demands Justice Too
Some Catholics speak as if compassion means never saying “no.”
But Catholicism is not sentimentalism. Catholicism is not “be nice at all costs.”
Catholicism teaches justice.
Justice means rendering what is due—not only to migrants, but to citizens, to legal immigrants, and to the stability of society itself.
Migrants deserve humane treatment.
But Americans also deserve a functioning country.
And legal immigrants deserve fairness.
And future generations deserve a nation that still exists.
Pope Leo and the Bishops: What I Take Seriously
When Pope Leo warns against xenophobia, contempt, and indifference, I listen.
When bishops warn against cruelty or treating migrants as disposable, I agree.
A Catholic cannot support hatred. A Catholic cannot support racism. A Catholic cannot treat human beings as animals.
But I also refuse to accept the modern idea that “enforcing the border is immoral.”
That is not Catholic doctrine.
That is politics.
And I will not let political ideology replace the Faith.
Why I Support Trump’s Immigration Enforcement
I supported Trump’s immigration policies because I believe he was one of the only modern presidents willing to do what every nation must do: enforce the law.
A government that refuses to enforce borders is not “welcoming.” It is weak.
And weakness invites more disorder.
Mass deportations may sound harsh, but at this stage they are necessary because decades of refusal to enforce the law created a situation that cannot be solved by half-measures.
Mercy without justice is not mercy—it is chaos.
Final Thought: I’m Catholic, Not a Political Puppet
I refuse to treat Catholicism as a partisan religion.
I refuse to treat bishops as political rulers.
And I refuse to pretend that supporting border security makes me less Christian.
I can love my Faith, love the Church, respect the Pope, attend Mass, receive the Eucharist, pray the Rosary, honor the saints—and still believe that the United States must enforce its immigration laws through real consequences, including deportations.
Because if laws mean nothing, then justice means nothing.
And without justice, a society collapses.
That is not only unwise—it is uncharitable.
And I believe, with a clear Catholic conscience, that defending borders and defending law is not a betrayal of the Gospel.
It is part of defending the common good.
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