Trump's Border Czar: Vatican Is Walled Off, Isn't It?

US border czar Tom Homan immediately pushed back after Pope Francis issued a major rebuke Tuesday to the Trump administration's plans for mass deportations of migrants, the AP reports. Homan, a Catholic, said Francis should fix the Catholic Church and leave US border protection to his department. "He wants to attack us for securing our border. He's got a wall around the Vatican, does he not?" Homan told reporters in a video from The Hill posted on X. "So he's got a wall around that protects his people and himself, but we can't have a wall around the United States."

The Vatican, a walled-in, 108-acre city-state inside Rome, recently increased sanctions for anyone who illegally enters the territory. The December law calls for a prison term of up to four years and a fine of up to $25,873 for anyone who enters with "violence, threat or deception," such as by evading security checkpoints. "He ought to fix the Catholic Church and concentrate on his work and leave border enforcement to us," Homan continued, per the Hill.

(More Tom Homan stories.)