00:00White House responds to Catholic bishops' request regarding immigration raids over Christmas.
00:06Florida's Catholic bishops urged President Donald Trump and Governor Ron DeSantis to temporarily halt immigration enforcement during Christmas as a gesture of mercy,
00:15but the White House declined, offering a polite yet firm rejection of the holiday ceasefire request.
00:22Archbishop Thomas Wenske of Miami openly backed the request by citing more than 500,000 deportations this year,
00:28and nearly 2 million voluntary self-deportations while acknowledging the border is now secured and many dangerous criminals have been removed.
00:37He then argued that with the low-hanging fruit gone, enforcement is increasingly targeting people who are just here to work,
00:44including non-criminals, and some with legal status that can take months to resolve.
00:49President Trump didn't run on seasonal enforcement.
00:52White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson summed it up bluntly.
00:55The president promised to deport criminal illegal aliens, and he's keeping that promise.
01:00Eight members of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, including leaders from the Diocese of St. Petersburg,
01:06have signed a letter urging the federal government to temporarily halt immigration enforcement during the Christmas season.
01:13Catholic leaders across the country, backed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and even Pope Leo XIV,
01:19have been increasingly vocal, warning that mass deportations create a climate of fear and risk dehumanizing people made in the image of God.
01:28But Republicans look at this and ask a different question.
01:31If not now, when?
01:33The calendar fills up quickly, when the goal is delay.
01:36Wenske's comments about facilities like Alligator Alcatraz and the Florida Everglades also tug at the heartstrings.
01:42But dignity and law enforcement are not mutually exclusive, no matter how often critics frame them that way.
01:49But the White House's refusal to pause enforcement sends a different message,
01:53one that many Republicans believe is long overdue.
01:56The law doesn't take holidays, and neither does the responsibility to enforce it.
02:01It's about fixing a broken system without pretending it isn't broken every time the calendar turns festive.
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