Consequences of Compassion

Naivety and emotionalism are pronounced all the more when they collide with real data and the perspective of time.  

In 2017, shortly after the first inauguration of President Trump, Dominican Sister Donna Markham, then president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, said in a statement, “Pope Francis has urged people not to close the door on migrants and refugees…In concert with the Holy Father, we believe we must move from attitudes of defensiveness and fear to acceptance, compassion and encounter.”

Sister Donna continued,

As the U.S. Catholic bishops have said, this is not an either/or situation for us. We can protect our citizens and, at the same time, we can welcome newcomers. Our commitment to care for those who are most vulnerable resides at the core of our faith.

As the CEO of Catholic charities (now retired) noted, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)—in both rhetoric and policy—has sided with illegal immigration and the “dignity” of all persons while simultaneously giving lip service to a country’s right to defend its borders.

With the perspective of time, what is the reality of the Church hierarchy’s self-described “compassion” for “migrants”? 

Let’s start with something we should all be able to agree on—the tragedy and heartbreak of the most vulnerable: missing and exploited children.

During the four years of the Biden presidency, the United States faced an overwhelming border crisis. Estimates of illegals crossing our borders vary widely. However, it is generally accepted that at least 11 million crossed. (Note: I am not going to use the politically correct term “undocumented migrants” favored by the USCCB and others in Church leadership. In United States federal law, the statutory term defined in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) is “illegal alien.”)

Included in the illegal aliens crossing the border during the Biden administration were roughly 480,000 unaccompanied minors. In many cases, these helpless children were released to sponsors without proper vetting. In its rush to get illegal aliens into the country, the Biden administration, including then U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and current California gubernatorial Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra, lowered the guardrails.

For example, HHS staff were urged by Becerra to treat the backlog of unaccompanied minors like an “assembly line” to discharge children to sponsors faster. Safety protocols were bypassed to clear temporary shelters quickly. As a result, many children were placed in exploitative environments. 

Subsequent investigations during the later Trump administration revealed some of the “sponsors” were paying smugglers to bring the children into the country. There were also cases where “sponsors” fraudulently claimed familial relationships. As a result, these victim children were subjected to physical and sexual abuse and labor exploitation.

Investigations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) showed that many of the unaccompanied minors were often placed in horrid living conditions or in situations that constituted neglect. In some cases, young unaccompanied girls became pregnant with children fathered by their alleged sponsors. ICE discovered numerous sponsors who committed serious crimes, including offenses of hit-and-run, aggravated assault, larceny, substance abuse, counterfeiting, drug trafficking, prostitution, and attempted murder.

As of June 2026, ICE—the same ICE that democratic socialists uniformly vilify and wish to abolish—has rescued approximately 146,000 unaccompanied minors and has referred for prosecution many of the child trafficking networks that exploited them as well as their migrant “sponsors.” Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of children are still missing. 

I will spare the reader graphic descriptions of the fate of some of the children. There are hundreds of stories. Each is heart-wrenching. Each has a name and “dignity” of person. The illegal aliens behind the crimes are among the worst of the worst. According to a DHS spokesperson, “These aren’t just low-level offenders—they are sickening sexual predators and smugglers who pose real public safety threats to Americans. These are grisly criminals who exploited children, smuggled illegal aliens, and stalked Americans.”

The Church hierarchy naively assumed that we could allow mass violation of our border and, at the same time, we could, as Sister Donna said, “protect our citizens.” How has that worked out? The data begins to tell the story.

Although the mainstream media actively works to suppress stories of illegal alien violent crime, the numbers are horrific. Murders, assaults, rapes, and road carnage caused by illegals are devasting. The exact numbers are impossible to obtain, in large part because most Democratic Party-controlled states and municipalities put restrictions on collecting and/or disseminating such data. In addition, their sanctuary policies work against cooperation with the federal government.

There are some private attempts to track the data. For example, Americans for Legal Immigration maintains a list of multi-hundreds of Americans killed by illegal aliens. As the site notes, these “100% preventable deaths…are only a very small fraction/tip of the data iceberg, and the vast majority of American deaths caused by illegal immigration are suppressed, censored, and unidentifiable.” Reportedly, over 90 percent are censored by Google. The list does not include “thousands of documented cases of illegals raping, robbing, assaulting, and harming Americans.”

I urge those who support illegal immigration to scroll down the list of victims. Remember, none of these deaths had to happen. Click on a victim’s name. Reflect on the life needlessly cut short. Think of the dreams that went unrealized. Contemplate the suffering—not only of the victims but of the families and loved ones. Reflect on the loss to communities. Now, think again about the word often used by advocates of illegal aliens: “compassion.” 

The above is simply a snapshot of another problem that has not received much attention. It’s estimated that approximately one fourth of all the women and children trafficked into the United States during their often long and perilous journeys were physically and/or sexually assaulted. Simple math should demonstrate to skeptics that the victim count could approximate one million.

Outside of physical crime, there are many fiscal concerns. It is estimated that the gross cost of illegal immigration is $182 billion annually, “covering spending on law enforcement, education, medical care and welfare programs at all levels.” This is occurring when the U.S. federal debt is over $40 trillion. Illegal aliens, “green card” holders, and newly naturalized citizens also make up a substantial percentage of those involved with government service fraud, which the Government Accountability Office estimates could exceed over $500 billion annually. There are also various other issues that should not be overlooked, including environmental crimes, overcrowded schools, the stress on emergency medical services, higher rents and property prices, higher unemployment for citizens, etc.

Fortunately, border enforcement, including the wall, is making progress in reversing the carnage.  Human trafficking networks are integrated with narcotic trafficking networks. Both are being simultaneously dismantled. Despite what liberal do-gooders might think, enforcement saves lives. For example, fentanyl-linked deaths plunged 22 percent in a single year. That equates to approximately 10,000 lives. There was also a 45 percent decline in nationwide fentanyl seizures in fiscal year 2025 compared with the previous year. The White House credits its border crackdown, campaign against drug cartels, and arrests of traffickers for helping drive down the deadly toll.

Approximately 2.3 million illegal aliens have left the United States thus far during the second Trump administration. There is a cause and effect between the departures and the improving crime rate. Unfortunately, in most sanctuary states and cities violent crime has stayed stubbornly high.

A large percentage of illegal aliens in the United States have ties to gangs or cartels. These individuals, plus those with prior violent criminal records, have been prioritized for deportation. Corresponding with forced and voluntary deportations, data shows that violent crime is plummeting to record levels. For example, the homicide rate is on pace for the lowest level in over 100 years. The steepest declines in homicides are found in cities where the Trump Administration ramped up enforcement and deportations after Democrat leaders failed to act. Countless lives have been saved.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 97 percent of illegal aliens entered the United States via the U.S.-Mexico border. The border crossings were facilitated almost entirely through smuggling networks. U.S. Border Patrol officials have stated that “nobody crosses without paying the cartels.”

Criminals are attracted to human trafficking because it is a multibillion-dollar business. Almost every illegal alien or their sponsor paid a substantial fee to a criminal organization. Some illegal aliens pay back their fees to the organization over time by committing to a type of long-term indentured servitude of labor or crime until their loans are repaid. Many human trafficking operations financially support larger international criminal groups, including violent drug cartels based in Mexico. 

Financial data also shows that enforcement works. The Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) released information showing suspicious activity (financial intelligence reported by banks and money service businesses) linked to human smuggling peaked in 2024, the last year of President Joe Biden’s single term. The reporting decreased dramatically in 2025, the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term. 

I’m not an attorney, but given the above cause and effect, it is a wonder the politicians that allowed this to happen, those that continue to allow crime to thrive in sanctuary jurisdictions, and those that enable, encourage, and facilitate the trauma, including some in the Catholic hierarchy in America, are not being charged criminally as coconspirators under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act due to their public support and acts in aiding and abetting networks engaged in human trafficking. Civil suits are possible. Why are those in power and those who wield influence—and, in some cases, benefit financially—not charged when illegal alien criminals for whom they facilitated illegal entry and subsequently helped shield from deportation go on to rape, murder, or otherwise violently harm American citizens? 

Evolutionary psychologist Gad Saad warns of “suicidal empathy,” whereby excessive compassion often prioritizes outsiders over citizens. Rooted in subjective relativism and a view of Western culture as uniquely immoral, hyper-empathy, Saad argues, risks civilizational collapse.  

So, why did the Church get involved when the results were so easy to predict? Is it because today’s feminized Church is swayed by emotion rather than rational thought? Does it all come back to money? For example, the Biden administration granted Catholic nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and charities nearly $3 billion in immigration-related funding. Is it because so-called “elites” favor globalism? Does the Church hierarchy want to fundamentally transform the United States? Is it Trump derangement syndrome?  

Sister Donna once urged policymakers to see the “faces and humanity” of those in need in their communities. We should. But facts and the perspective of time speak volumes. Unfortunately, the Church chose to ignore the dark side of illegal immigration—including the victims.

Their faces have been lost to us forever—victims, in part, of compassion.