Bannon: Catholic Leaders 'Need Illegal Aliens to Fill the Churches'

The Catholic Church opposes ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program because "they need illegal aliens to fill the churches," former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon says in an interview airing this weekend.

"The Catholic Church has been terrible about this," Bannon, now an executive editor for Breitbart News, told CBS News' Charlie Rose in an excerpt from a "60 Minutes" interview aired Thursday on "CBS This Morning." "The bishops have been terrible about this. You know why. Because unable to really — to come to grips with the problems in the church, they need illegal aliens."

Bannon made the remarks after Rose had reminded him, as a "good Catholic," that Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, had come out against President Donald Trump's decision to end DACA, but the decision is on hold for six months to allow Congress to work on a law to determine the fate of the nation's estimated 800,000 "Dreamers," who were brought to the United States illegally as children.

Dolan on Tuesday commented on his Sirius XM radio program, "Conversation with Cardinal Dolan" that Trump's termination of DACA is "certainly not Christian, and I would contend it's not American," reports HuffPost.

Further, Dolan said, Trump's action "turns our beloved immigrants into political hockey pucks, and they shouldn't be."

Dolan also commented the church has "special solicitude" for immigrants, as "we are an immigrant church. They come to us first. The highest percentage of immigrants are, guess what? — Catholic."

"They need illegal aliens to fill the churches," Bannon told Rose about Dolan's statements. "It's obvious on the face of it. That's what — the entire Catholic Bishops condemn him. They have an economic interest in unlimited immigration, unlimited illegal immigration."

Bannon said he also does not agree with what Trump did with DACA, but he understands it.

"He said it last night in a tweet that he's going to rethink it," said Bannon. "Trust me, the guys on the far right, the conservative side, are not happy with this."

Bannon said he does respect Cardinal Dolan and the bishops on church doctrine, but the matter of doctrine is "not doctrine at all."

"This is about the sovereignty of the nation," said Bannon. "In that regard, it's another guy with an opinion."

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