Pope meets with Chicago union leaders, urges migrant welcome as
crackdown underway in hometown
[October 10, 2025]
By NICOLE WINFIELD
ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV urged labor union leaders from Chicago on
Thursday to advocate for immigrants and welcome minorities into their
ranks, weighing in as the Trump administration crackdown on immigrants
intensifies in the pontiff's hometown.
“While recognizing that appropriate policies are necessary to keep
communities safe, I encourage you to continue to advocate for society to
respect the human dignity of the most vulnerable,” Leo said.
The audience was scheduled before the deployment of National Guard
troops to protect federal property in the Chicago area, including a U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement building that has been the site of
occasional clashes between protesters and federal agents.
Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, who accompanied the labor leaders, said
that Leo was well aware of the situation on the ground. In an interview
with The Associated Press, Cupich said that Leo has made clear,
including in recent comments, that migrants and the poor must be treated
in ways that respect their human dignity.
“I really didn’t have to tell him much at all, because he seemed to have
a handle on what was going on,” Cupich told the AP afterward.
He said that Leo had urged U.S. bishops in particular to “speak with one
voice” on the issue. Cupich said he expected the November meeting of the
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops would make immigration a top agenda
item.
“This has to be front and center right now. This is the issue of the
day. And we can’t dance around it,” Cupich said.
Catholic leaders in the U.S. have denounced the Trump administration’s
crackdown, which has split up families and incited fears that people
could be rounded up and deported any time. The administration has
defended the crackdown as safeguarding public safety and national
security.
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Pope Leo XIV presides over a Mass for the participants in the
jubilee of ordained people in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican,
Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
“He (Leo) wants us to make sure, as bishops, that we speak out on
behalf of the undocumented or anybody who’s vulnerable to preserve
their dignity,” Cupich said. “We all have to remember that we all
share a common dignity as human beings.”
Cupich said he was heartened by Leo's remarks last week, in which
the pope defended the cardinal's decision to honor Illinois Sen.
Dick Durbin for his work helping immigrants. The plans drew
objection from some conservative U.S. bishops given the powerful
Democratic senator’s support for abortion rights, and he ultimately
declined the award.
It was the second meeting in as many days that history's first
American pope has heard firsthand from a U.S. bishop on the front
lines of the migration crackdown. On Wednesday, El Paso bishop Mark
Seitz brought Leo letters from desperate immigrant families.
Cupich was in Rome for Vatican meetings and to also accompany a
group of Chicago schoolchildren who got a special greeting from Leo
during his Wednesday general audience. The kids had staged their own
“mock conclave” in school this past spring and footage of their
deliberations went viral online as the real conclave unfolded in
Rome. They arrived at the audience Wednesday dressed as cardinals,
Swiss Guards and the pope himself.
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