With the help of The Washington Post, Saturday Good Morning America co-host Gio Benitez brought back ABC’s habit of hyping actions by Pope Leo if it could help them in a shot at Trump. This time, the news revolved around a new bishop in West Virginia who used to be an illegal immigrant and is naturally a Trump critic.
Genitez reported that “the next bishop to lead Catholics in West Virginia is formally an undocumented immigrant. Pope Leo appointed Bishop Evelio Menjivar to the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. Bishop Menjivar was born in El Salvador. The Washington Post reports that he was smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico in the trunk of a car back in 1990. In 2023, he was ordained an auxiliary bishop of Washington. Bishop Menjivar has publicly spoken out against the Trump administration’s treatment of immigrants.”
ABC’s Gio Benitez hypes West Virginia’s newest bishop being a former illegal immigrant who has criticized Trump, “the next bishop to lead Catholics in West Virginia, is formally an undocumented immigrant. Pope Leo appointed Bishop Evelio Menjivar to the Diocese of… pic.twitter.com/EuEb3HJ7br
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) May 2, 2026
ABC loves to talk about Pope Leo when he is contradicting Trump on immigration or Iran, but when he recently rebuked German bishops for formally blessing same-sex couples, they were nowhere to be seen.
For their part, The Post provided more biographical details, such as that Menjivar became a citizen in 2006 after obtaining a green card after fleeing El Salvador’s civil war, but both left out that on one of his failed attempts, he was deported by Mexican authorities — which raises the question is Mexico problematic too?— and that after entering the U.S. illegally, he applied for asylum. Today, claiming asylum has become a last resort for people trying to stay in the country even if they don’t face the persecution needed to qualify.
However, unlike ABC, The Post featured some additional appointees. One new bishop was hyped for his efforts to attack the administration’s anti-DEI campaign:
Rev. Robert Boxie III, 46, who had been a chaplain at Howard University, becomes the country’s youngest bishop. The Harvard Law School graduate has called attacks on diversity ‘un-American’ and ‘un-Christian’ and expressed concern about the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
‘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 told the Catholic news agency OSV. ‘We are a diverse nation with people from all over the world. Diversity is a good thing. Diversity is of God.’
If it means a lot of things to different people, then it is reasonable to point out that some people believe Diversity with a capital D is not the same thing as diversity with a lowercase D.
While Leo certainly has been critical of Trump on immigration, based on other comments he made about a country’s right to control its borders, there is no reason to believe he would support turning asylum into a way to bypass laws against illegal entry. Perhaps ABC and The Washington Post should report that as well.
Here is a transcript for the May 2 show:
ABC Good Morning America
5/2/2026
9:07 PM ET
GIO BENITEZ: Okay, Whit, the next bishop to lead Catholics in West Virginia is formally an undocumented immigrant. Pope Leo appointed Bishop Evelio Menjivar to the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. Bishop Menjivar was born in El Salvador. The Washington Post reports that he was smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico in the trunk of a car back in 1990. In 2023, he was ordained an auxiliary bishop of Washington. Bishop Menjivar has publicly spoken out against the Trump administration’s treatment of immigrants.
