Heidi Schlumpf

Senior correspondent at Commonweal magazine; co-host of Francis Effect podcast; adjunct faculty at Loyola University Chicago
[email protected]

[Heidi Schlumpf @HeidiSchlumpf]

Godspeed, Elise. I hope to be reading your work somewhere else soon.

[Elise Ann Allen @eliseannallen]

Some personal news:

https://t.co/RHoowJeTzC

[Katty McCatnip🇺🇸🌊☮️🦋 @PensiveMusings]

@DemocraticWins Instead, why don’t we consider:

[Heidi Schlumpf @HeidiSchlumpf]

Lord, have mercy. The cruelty toward Haitians is unbelievable.

[Congressman Greg Landsman @RepGregLandsman]

They came here legally. They risked their lives doing so. They became productive members of American society. They worked, went to church, and broke no laws.

Now they're being sent back to what many describe as “hell,” and Trump officials are gloating about it….

[Joaquin Castro @JoaquinCastrotx]

The mother of David Garcia, a first year Naval Academy midshipman from San Antonio, was deported last night to Mexico. Yesterday, after my office worked day and night toward her release, I shared the news with the family and David.

She raised a bright young man with good character who is serving our nation. She was in the process of getting a green card and was doing everything the right way. Maria should be home, not torn apart from her family and life.

We cannot allow the president’s mass deportation campaign to destroy more families for profit.

[Heidi Schlumpf @HeidiSchlumpf]

"When the only thing most Americans seem to agree on is the fact that we don’t agree on much of anything, it’s worth asking how a country singer came to exemplify a unity that otherwise escapes us." My latest piece in Commonweal:

https://t.co/ysYsUrkKhy

[Jacob Crosse | @crossebarx.bsky.social @CrosseBarx]

ICE kidnaps 76-year-old green card holder with stage 4 cancer at citizenship interview

For a 76-year-old man w/ advanced cancer, imprisonment in a detention system notorious for denying medical care amounts to a virtual death sentence.
https://t.co/aI6pCEHV9S

[Commonweal Magazine @commonwealmag]

"I think what made Dolly Parton special was how she stood up for what she believed in: with grace, humor, and respect for those who believed differently than she did."

@HeidiSchlumpf: Why did Dolly mean so much to us?
https://t.co/7f0JpockY3

[Commonweal Magazine @commonwealmag]

Suddenly, a lot of folks are taking the Church’s social teaching seriously. The shift is noticeable—even to those outside the Church.

The latest from @HeidiSchlumpf:
https://t.co/ipIVbuW70G

[Tim Miller @Timodc]

She came to the land of opportunity through a legal process like so many before her. Followed the rules. Showed up to an immigration appointment after the most devastating health event a woman can experience. Gets shackled like an animal. That’s our country now.

[Heidi Schlumpf @HeidiSchlumpf]

The long-overdue shift is noticeable, even to people outside the church. My most recent piece in Commonweal:

https://t.co/Cv8Kgn7jdP

[Heidi Schlumpf @HeidiSchlumpf]

Lord, have mercy

[Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @ReichlinMelnick]

Multiple people sent to Liberia by the Trump admin despite having no connections to it allege that they were not told where they were being taken and were beaten by ICE guards when they panicked and protested.

[Rich Raho @RichRaho]

The Vatican office that handles every sainthood case in the world, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, has approved the first portion of the file assembled to make Dorothy Day a saint. https://t.co/PT4ju4A2mu

[Heidi Schlumpf @HeidiSchlumpf]

This is the seventh spouse or parent of an active duty person arrested by ICE. This is how we say "thanks for your service."

[Bill Madden @maddenifico]

Cruelty Is the Point

They did not pick up a stranger at the border. They took a soldier's wife in a Walmart parking lot while her six-year-old sat in the car. Cristy Maryori Villafranca-Trejo had no criminal record. She was married to an active-duty Army sergeant at Fort Bliss. She was listed as his dependent. She was the parent who kept the house running while he trained and served. They held her for weeks. On Monday they flew her to Honduras.

Her husband now does school drop-off instead of morning training. He has already delayed a move. He does not know if he can stay in the Army. The child asks when her mother is coming home. He has no answer.

This is at least the seventh spouse or parent of an active-duty service member deported in the crackdown. More than fifty military families have been dragged into detention after the administration killed the old practice of leaving the households of people in uniform alone.

The Trump regime had a choice. Leave the sergeant's wife with his child, or exert ultimate cruelty and make an example. They made the example. Not because she was a threat, but because for Trump, the theater of taking her mattered more than the man still in uniform, the kid in first grade, or the unit that now has a distracted NCO instead of a ready one.

That is not enforcement. That is the message: even the families of people who serve are fair game.

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

ICE has arrested more than half a million people since President Trump returned to office, and nearly 40 percent do not have a criminal record.

As of Aug. 6, ICE had detained more people without a criminal record this year than in all of 2025. https://t.co/HkeORNeWvK

[Heidi Schlumpf @HeidiSchlumpf]

I can see why! It's a provocative title and funny!

[Thomas Reese, S.J. @ThomasReeseSJ]

My column is currently the most popular at RNS: Why I hate the old Latin Mass: A confession https://t.co/IYlh5GOuzn

[Heidi Schlumpf @HeidiSchlumpf]

Uh, someone did not learn the HOMES acronym in school! HAMES is just not going to cut it.

[ABC News @ABC]

JUST IN: President Trump has signed an executive order changing the name of Lake Ontario to "Lake America." The name change is "effective immediately," Trump said. https://t.co/pvptUp6pBm

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

This morning in Danbury, ICE was arresting parents at school bus stops.

But it’s more sinister. ICE waited until the kids were on the bus so when they are dropped off at the end of the day, they are alone, scared to death they can’t find their parents.

I’m heading to Danbury.

[Joaquin Castro @JoaquinCastrotx]

Sailor Joshua Aviles' dad Luis has been released. I am glad he is no longer in ICE custody but he should've never been locked up in the first place.

[Mary Ann Ahern @MaryAnnAhernNBC]

Fr Pfleger reinstated. @archchicago

[FOX 32 News @fox32news]

Father Michael Pfleger has been reinstated at St. Sabina Parish after an independent review of a sexual abuse allegation against him found there was no reason to believe he was guilty, the Archdiocese of Chicago announced Monday. https://t.co/FP5obXaSAr