In his video report, O’Keefe included an image of a whiteboard containing the names and contact information of Catholic Charities and their staff.
“Immediately after that post went viral online people started calling team members with threats,” Pajanor said, adding that his team has now increased security at facilities throughout the city — including ones that have nothing to do with migrants.
San Diego Cardinal Robert McElroy condemned O’Keefe’s actions in a statement to RNS. Describing the incident as an “assault” on Catholic Charities, McElroy accused O’Keefe and his team of “illegal entry,” of victimizing legal immigrants and of criticizing the Church for providing food and shelter, “as the Lord commands.” McElroy also condemned the publicizing of staff’s personal identities and data, “subjecting them to death threats and the destruction of their private lives.”
“Christ weeps at the invocation of His name to justify such outrages,” according to McElroy’s emailed statement.
Efforts to reach O’Keefe for comment were unsuccessful.
Catholic Charities officials say the incident is just the latest in a string of attacks on their work.
Similar videos were made by far-right figures at Catholic Charities facilities in Laredo, Texas, and in Southwestern Ohio, prompting a slew of threatening phone calls and leading the organizations to increase security, the directors of both facilities told RNS.
On Oct. 28, 2023, Stew Peters, a far-right influencer who has expressed pro-Nazi views, said in a speech broadcast to his more than 500,000 followers on both Rumble and X that Catholic Charities helps “coach illegals on how to get admitted here.” He then called for shooting Catholic Charities workers, in addition to migrants.
Peters’ speech came after over a year of accusations by a handful of Republican House Representatives that Catholic Charities was complicit in “a secretive, taxpayer-funded, and likely illegal operation to move unknown migrants into the United States.” Often led by Reps. Lance Gooden of Texas and Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin, a small group of GOP lawmakers have penned letters to Biden administration officials echoing those accusations.
Lawmakers have also formally called on Catholic Charities, Jewish Family Services and other faith groups to preserve documents “related to any expenditures submitted for reimbursement from the federal government related to migrants encountered at the Southern border.” And House Republicans passed a border bill that included a provision stripping funds from a program that reimburses those offering certain aid to migrants.
Jared Holt, an expert on political extremism and senior research analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, noted upticks in anti-immigrant rhetoric are common among conservatives during an election year. But when media outlets and personalities home in on specific groups, he said, the situation can escalate quickly.
“To the degree that this might intensify or escalate any more than it has, I think a lot of that depends on how political leaders in this country conduct themselves,” Holt said.
