Commentary: Where to find solace in the age of ICE

Bob Kustra, Chicago Tribune on Jan 26, 2026

Published in Op Eds

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Where can one go to hear the moral sanity that counters the grudgeful actions of the American president? Where can we hear the voice of compassion and empathy as immigration agents ignore the most basic rights of Americans and demonstrate the heavy hand of authoritarian government in action? Who would have guessed it would come from a former Chicago priest now influencing others in the Catholic hierarchy?

President Donald Trump’s MAGA rallies have served as training sessions for at least a third of Americans, who polls show support his administration’s actions regardless of how ruthless and deadly they have been recently in Minneapolis. Republicans now scoff at President Ronald Reagan’s reference to America as “a shining city upon a hill.”

Today, Trump teaches how to put self ahead of that shining city upon a hill. He degrades the language we use to modulate our disagreements and seek common ground. He stretches the truth into fabrications, and he punishes those with whom he disagrees.

His latest lesson was giving the finger to a worker at a Michigan auto plant who yelled at him for his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein controversy, thereby giving license to his minions to do the same in any conflict or disagreement.

Americans hoping for a better day yearn for a leader who may differ with political opponents but doesn’t cast them as enemies to be executed for treason, as Trump did to U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and Navy fighter pilot. Most Americans according to the latest polls disapprove of Trump and hope for a return to a president who governs with a respect for the norms presidents of both parties have observed when criticizing those who differed with them.

Historically, strong congressional leadership offered strong dissenting voices, which gave hope to Americans seeking new leadership. But Trump’s daily doses of outlandish behavior and the vengeance he wreaks on anyone who differs with him are no match for conventional norms used to counter a strong president.

Both Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are weak matches for Trump’s incessant manipulation of the media with major networks such as CBS folding to his threats and intimidation. Democratic governors have challenged Trump’s autocratic leadership, but their states suffer greatly as Chicago learned with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s violent rebuttal to Gov. JB Pritzker’s criticisms of Trump and as Gov. Tim Walz is experiencing in Minnesota.

The election of the Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV came at a most strategic moment as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump have vied for the world “might makes right” title. With Trump as the world’s bully, it seems likely that the College of Cardinals knew exactly who they were choosing when they voted for a missionary priest from South America with his roots in the most American of cities, Chicago.

The College of Cardinals, with the Vatican’s most sophisticated diplomatic corps, must have known how Cardinal Robert Prevost could serve as a moral corrective to Trump who ignores international law and is devoid of any empathy for those who suffer at his hand. The new pope has taken center stage in the world arena serving as a counterweight to Trump.

Leo’s appointments of bishops since becoming pope reveal a strong concern about Trump’s ICE approach to border control. If there is a common thread in the pope’s appointments of U.S. bishops, almost all of them have been critical publicly of Trump’s immigration policies.

Leo replaced the controversial Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, who called Charlie Kirk a “modern-day St. Paul,” with Bishop Ronald A. Hicks of Joliet, Illinois, who served as a missionary priest in El Salvador.

In a stunning and broadened critique of Trump and after a recent conversation, Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago; Cardinal Robert McElroy, archbishop of Washington, D.C.; and Cardinal Joseph Tobin, archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, had with Leo, they called for a “genuinely moral foreign policy” in a statement. Referring to Venezuela, Ukraine and Greenland, they said that “military action must be seen only as a last resort in extreme situations, not a normal instrument of national policy.”

Last month, the National Catholic Register reported that 54% of Catholics still support Trump’s immigration policies, the same percentage of Catholics who voted for Trump in 2024. Only time will tell if Catholics follow their church’s leadership and reject the policies of Trump.

Leo and his American bishops and cardinals offer people of all faiths a path paved with compassion and justice for those seeking to improve their lives. Just as importantly, they employ the soft power of the Vatican to warn against a government that threatens and intimidates by brandishing its weapons when it fails in or avoids diplomacy.

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Bob Kustra served two terms as Republican lieutenant governor of Illinois and 10 years as a state legislator. He is now host of “Readers Corner” on Boise State Public Radio and a regular columnist for the Idaho Statesman.

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