Archbishop Wester Implies Trump Is Another Hitler: Warns of ‘Bonhoeffer Moment’

Two prominent U.S. Catholics agree that immigration remains a daunting challenge — but each has starkly different viewpoints about what their faith demands of them during this moment.

First there’s Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, who told me in a recent phone interview that he believes we’re living in “a Dietrich Bonhoeffer moment,” invoking the 20th-century Lutheran pastor killed for his anti-Nazi activism. Then there’s Tom Homan, the lifelong Catholic tapped by President Donald Trump to lead the administration’s immigration crackdown.

Wester signed a recent statement along with 17 other bishops, from Arizona to Rhode Island, calling on Congress and the White House to change how federal agents undertake immigration raids. Among the suggestions: restore the right to seek asylum; end raids at sensitive places like churches, hospitals and schools; keep families intact; lose the masks; and only target bona fide criminals, not immigrants who contribute to the common good.

Wester acknowledged that immigration is a “controversial and complicated issue,” but said the administration’s tactics — mass deportations, presuming people are guilty based on their race and rounding up human beings like cattle — “goes against the Gospel and we need to speak out and call it what it is.”

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TAKE ACTION: Contact Archbishop Wester and let him know what you think.