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Consider This from NPR

Chicago's Archbishop weighs in on immigration enforcement

Consider This from NPR

NPR

Society & Culture, News, Daily News, News Commentary

4.15.3K Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Catholic Church is wading into a deeply partisan issue. The Archbishop of Chicago weighs in.

This fall, the Trump administration launched Operation Midway Blitz – an aggressive immigration crackdown campaign in Chicago.

It was met with outcry from many communities around the city including the Catholic Church, and that sentiment goes all the way to the very top of the Church with Pope Leo calling on the government to treat undocumented people humanely. 

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at [email protected].This episode was produced by Kathryn Fink, featuring reporting from NPR domestic extremism correspondent Odette Yousef.

It was edited by Courtney Dorning and Patrick Jarenwattananon.

Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

One of the images that has defined this past year is that of a masked man on a city street wearing mirrored sunglasses and dressed in camouflage.

0:09.8

That is how federal ICE and Border Patrol agents showed up in cities across the country, cities like Charlotte, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

0:18.3

These agents have been met with all kinds of resistance from residents

0:21.6

trying to protect people in their communities. So we have people almost always patrolling the

0:28.1

neighborhood? That's Gabe Gonzalez in Chicago. He is the co-founder of a grassroots resistance

0:32.6

organization called Protect Rogers Park. This fall, when the city was facing an aggressive immigration

0:38.2

crackdown, the group tried to make it harder for federal agents to do their jobs by patrolling

0:43.2

neighborhoods, monitoring the activity of ICE agents, and spreading word to residents. Now, they

0:48.3

are teaching people in other cities how to do the same.

0:51.0

They've radicalized a set of people through their own actions, and that'll be a generation

0:57.8

before that goes away.

0:59.6

Resistance to the Trump administration's immigration enforcement efforts has come from

1:03.7

all sorts of places, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

1:08.2

We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions

1:13.6

of profiling and immigration enforcement.

1:16.6

We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vivification of immigrants.

1:22.6

This is from a recent video featuring Catholic bishops from across the country.

1:27.6

Part of a rare collective message calling for the quote, end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence.

1:34.3

That sentiment goes all the way to the very top of the church.

1:38.0

Here's Pope Leo speaking to reporters last month.

1:40.9

We have to look for ways of treating people humanely, treating people with the dignity

1:46.6

that they have. If people are in the United States illegally, there are ways to treat that.

...

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