JD Vance reconciles Catholic faith with Trump border crackdown on “Pod Force One,” defends deportations, dignity, and sovereignty.
Newsroom (30/10/2025, Gaudium Press ) Vice President JD Vance delved deeply into the intersection of his Catholic faith and the Trump administration’s stringent immigration enforcement during the latest episode of “Pod Force One,” released Wednesday. Speaking with Miranda Devine, Vance addressed earlier criticisms from Catholic leaders, including a January rebuke from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops over President Trump’s hardline border policies.
Vance, who converted to Roman Catholicism in 2019, emphasized a balanced approach that honors migrants’ dignity while prioritizing national sovereignty. “The Vatican, especially under Pope Francis, had a particular line on immigration. And I try to interpret this stuff charitably, partially because I’m a new Catholic,” he said. “I think the Catholic Church recognizes we have to have border control. … That’s very clearly written in Catholic teaching, is that nations are allowed sovereignty, they’re allowed to control their own borders.”
He continued: “However, it’s always useful to remind ourselves that a lot of the people who have come into our country, they’re struggling in some way. They’re human beings. And even though we have to engage in immigration enforcement, I try to remind myself — consistent with church teaching — that doesn’t mean we can let these people stay in our country, but I do have a responsibility to try to remember their humanity.”
Vance offered what he called a “charitable interpretation” of papal guidance: “Yes, you can have your border policy; yes, you can enforce your borders. You also have to try to [remember] that all 8 billion people who are alive on this planet are God’s creatures, we have to owe them a certain respect and a certain dignity — doesn’t mean we should let them illegally immigrate into our country.”
The discussion comes amid a sharp reversal in border dynamics under the Trump administration. During the Biden years, as many as 8 million migrants entered the U.S. through various programs — including flights, buses, ports of entry, or direct crossings past Border Patrol agents, with many later released into the interior.
Vance directed criticism at the prior administration for policies he said “waved the magic asylum” or “waived the parole law.” He argued that large-scale illegal immigration empowers cartels engaged in heinous crimes. “I would say, and this is something that I really wish that all Christians took more seriously, that, yes, we have to show dignity to people, whether they’re in our country legally or illegally, but when you encourage illegal immigration [at] the scale that Joe Biden did, you empower the cartels, you empower these people who are raping and murdering and selling 12-year-old girls [as] sex slaves,” Vance said.
Devine interjected: “Or C-sections on little girls.”
“Exactly,” Vance replied. “There’s a balance between immigration enforcement and treating people like humans. … And in some ways, the best thing that we can do to protect the human dignity of the migrant — but certainly of the American citizens that I have a certain responsibility to protect — is to stop the border crisis, which, thanks to President Trump’s leadership, that’s exactly what we’ve done.”
Border officials recorded the lowest number of migrant crossings in modern history in June 2025.
Vance attributed the Biden-era surge to political motives, claiming officials “were using immigration to seize control, illegitimately, of the institutions in this country.” He cited statements from some Democrats suggesting they sought to “import new voters to replace” existing ones unable to secure their support. More charitably, he described a “distorted humanitarian thing” where enforcement was viewed as “un-Christian or immoral.”
The consequences, he said, included bankrupting programs like Medicaid, inflating housing costs, and pitting migrants against Americans in the job market. “Because if Joe Biden stood before the American people and said, ‘I’d like to let 5 million low-wage immigrants into this country every single year,’ the American people would say, ‘No,'” Vance noted. “But he didn’t ask the American people. He just did it without asking permission. I think that’s illegal, but I also think it delegitimizes the entire immigration system in this country.”
Since Trump’s inauguration, at least 1.4 million people have left the U.S. in the first six months of 2025, many voluntarily due to the administration’s policies. More than 100,000 migrants were forcibly removed by the end of March, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement focusing on those convicted of crimes, as previously reported by The Post. Vance said total deportations — including self-deportations — have now reached around 2 million.
“We’re trying to remove as many as we possibly can,” he said. “That was a combination of deportations and what we call self-deportations. … But there’s a lot to go. We’re just gonna keep on working at it. We’re gonna try to chip away at that as much as possible.”
Recalling campaign questions about deporting 10 to 18 million people, Vance quipped: “The same way that you eat a very big sandwich — you do it a bite at a time.”
Shifting to a personal note, Vance shared an emotional experience from his recent trip to Jerusalem. Visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre — the site of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, burial, and resurrection in Catholic tradition — left him in tears. “It’s actually where the cross was. And I’d never seen that and I’d never been in there. And I’m not a big crier,” he recalled. “You kneel down and it’s a very short area, so you kind of have to almost crawl underneath, but then you can actually place your hand where the understanding of, like, where the cross would have been placed on Golgotha. And I start crying.”
“I was completely overcome with emotion, and I didn’t expect that,” he added. “You never know what to expect, but there was this moment of just complete silence. … I got similarly emotional when I touched, it’s the slab that is placed over the tomb.”
- Raju Hasmukh with files from the New York Post
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