US Cardinal calls for rejection of ICE budget in US Congress: 'An organization without faith and without law'
Cardinal Joseph Tobin Photo: Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP / Profimedia
An American cardinal close to Pope Leo XIV asked the faithful to pressure their elected representatives in Congress not to vote on the budget for the federal immigration police (ICE), which he described as “an organization without faith and without law”, informs AFP.
After the death of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old paramedic killed by federal agents during an anti-ICE protest in Minneapolis, Democrats ruled out voting on a $64.4 billion federal budget for the Department of Homeland Security, $10 billion of which would go to ICE.
“If we really want to translate our faith into action, we have to say no,” Cardinal Joseph Tobin, archbishop of Newark, said in an online sermon, quoted by the National Catholic Reporter, a Catholic publication in the United States.
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“We are in mourning before a world and a country that allows the legal detention of five-year-old children and the massacre of protesters,” the prelate said, referring to the events of recent weeks in Minneapolis.
“How will you say no, how will you oppose the violence? Will you ask them, for the love of God and for the love of people, which cannot be separated, to vote against renewing the funding of this faithless and lawless organization?” said Cardinal Tobin, referring to Friday's session of Congress in which the adoption of the federal budget is scheduled.
The first American pope, Leo XIV has frequently criticized President Donald Trump's policy towards immigrants, denouncing in November the “extremely disrespectful” treatment they are subjected to.
