DHS Hires Chad Pecknold as Outreach Director, Backing Trump Immigration Line Against 1 Catholic Bishops Group
Updated
Updated · The Washington Post · Sep 11
DHS Hires Chad Pecknold as Outreach Director, Backing Trump Immigration Line Against 1 Catholic Bishops Group
3 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · Sep 11
Summary
DHS named Catholic theologian Chad Pecknold cultural outreach director, adding a prominent conservative voice who has defended Trump administration immigration enforcement.
Pecknold, a longtime Catholic University professor, has criticized the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for supporting immigrant rights and has also offered Catholic arguments for Trump’s Iran war policy.
The hire places DHS closer to Vice President JD Vance’s effort to frame Trump policies in explicitly Catholic terms, even as many U.S. bishops and Pope Leo XIV remain critical.
That clash underscores a broader split inside U.S. Catholic circles over immigration, with the administration elevating religious allies rather than church leaders opposing its approach.