Pope Leo appoints bishops who defended DEI and criticized immigration enforcement

Pope Leo XIV announced appointments of U.S. bishops that some characterized as being anti-Trump after a public feud with the administration.

Among the appointments were bishops that had criticized the attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, as well as the strengthening of immigration enforcement.

‘We are a diverse nation with people from all over the world. Diversity is a good thing. Diversity is of God.’

Washington Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjivar previously claimed that immigration enforcement had caused fear in immigrant communities.

“The federal government has pursued a ‘shock and awe’ campaign of aggressive threats and highly visible operations of questionable legality that go far beyond mere immigration ‘enforcement,'” he said.

Menjivar has been named as the new bishop for the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston in West Virginia.

Father Robert Boxie III has been named as the new auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Washington, but he previously defended policies on diversity.

“In a lot of ways we have made great progress, but in so many ways, I feel like we’re regressing,” Boxie said in an interview with OSV News in 2025.

“It’s really frustrating — especially this moment that we’re living in. The attacks on ‘DEI’ — I don’t even know what that means anymore. It’s a term that’s been hijacked. It means a lot of things to a lot of different people.”

He went on to defend diversity as central to the U.S. and to the Catholic Church.

“I think at its core, it’s what America is all about. We are a diverse nation with people from all over the world. Diversity is a good thing. Diversity is of God,” he continued. “And the fact that it’s been turned into something negative — or something that should be avoided or not talked about — just flies in the face of who we are as Americans.”

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A third bishop referred to the rioting at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as “sickening unrest.”

Others rejected the framing of the appointments as having any political dimensions at all.

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