President Donald Trump attends the national prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
"And the people – the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meet packing plants, who wash the dishes at their restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals, they – they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors," Budde said. "They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues… and temples."
The reverend asked Trump to have "mercy on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones of persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome, our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to a stranger."
The vice president and second lady leaned over and whispered to one another during the sermon.
At the start of her remarks, Budde began to "pray for unity as people and nation, not for agreement, political or otherwise, but for the kind of unity that fosters community across diversity and division, a unity that serves the common good."
"Unity, in this sense, is a threshold requirement for people to live in freedom and together in a free society," she said.
"Rather," Budde continued, "Unity is a way of being with one another, and it encompasses and respects differences that teaches us to hold multiple perspectives and life experiences as valid and worthy of respect that enables us in our communities to genuinely care for one another, even when we disagree."
President Donald Trump, left, and first lady Melania Trump attend the national prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The president has promised mass deportations of criminal illegal immigrants and further sparked controversy by signing an executive order eliminating birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants.
It's not the first time Budde made her left-leaning political views known. A video clip from 2020 shows Budde speaking to an ABC News reporter while protesting in Washington, D.C.
"It is a message for a call to justice – for swift justice for George Floyd," Budde, wearing a face mask, said at the time. "For systemic justice for all brown and Black people who have been under the knee of this country in ways that we have witnessed time and time again." She went on to say, "This is wrong, and this rising up – this spontaneous uprising of people mostly half my age or younger, they are the ones we should be listening to."
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Asked about Trump, Budde said, "I've given up speaking to President Trump. We need to replace President Trump."
Budde also testified before Congress regarding a June 1, 2020, confrontation between demonstrators and law enforcement near St. John's Church in Lafayette Square.
She said "our government resorted to acts of violence against peaceful protesters" and said the Episcopal church believes the issues of "racial and social justice are core tenants of the Christian faith."
Budde also condemned Trump for holding up a Bible outside the church following the unrest. Testifying virtually at the time, she told a House committee, "When the President held up a Bible outside our church as if to claim the mantle of spiritual authority over what had just transpired, I knew that I had to speak. Nowhere does the Bible condone the use of violence against the innocent."
Trump revisited that same church on Monday morning before he was sworn in as the 47th president.
Fox News' Sarah Tobianski contributed to this report
Danielle Wallace is a breaking news and politics reporter at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on X: @danimwallace.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/reverend-asks-trump-have-mercy-immigrants-lgbtq-children-who-fear-lives