The new bishop appointed to lead West Virginia Catholics has pledged to continue speaking up for immigrants in the mould of Pope Leo, who appointed him last week amid ongoing tension between Donald Trump and the Vatican.

The Right Rev Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, 55, is not planning to hide his views after being elevated from assistant bishop in Washington DC to lead the diocese that covers West Virginia – the first Latino American bishop from El Salvador, who left Central America as a teenager and arrived in the US smuggled in the trunk of a car.

“I will keep talking about people’s reality, defending immigrants and fighting for fair treatment for them,” Menjivar-Ayala said in an interview with the Guardian at the offices of the archdiocese of Washington, in Hyattsville, Maryland.

It’s been almost 40 years since Menjivar-Ayala fled El Salvador’s civil war and crossed the US-Mexico border into California, but Washington’s auxiliary bishop hasn’t forgotten his past. He still identifies very much with migrants: every time he hears about raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), he tells himself “that immigrant could be me,” he said.

He made headlines last April for speaking out against the Trump administration’s mass arrest, detention and deportation agenda and its “highly visible operations of questionable legality that go far beyond mere immigration enforcement”. Many saw his appointment as bishop just over a week ago as a clear sign from the pope. Pope Leo is also relatively new in his role as the head of the Catholic church but the Chicagoan quickly made a splash defending immigrants and is now embroiled in a battle with the White House over the US-Israel War on Iran.’’

On Tuesday, Trump warned the pope was “endangering a lot of Catholics” with his comments against war, accusing him of thinking “it’s just fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon” – a claim the pope rejects. In April, JD Vance, the US vice-president and a Catholic convert, advised Leo to “stick to matters of morality” and to “be careful when he talks about matters of theology”.

On Thursday, Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, met with the pope in Rome in what was dubbed a “fence-mending” visit. Friday marked the first anniversary of Leo’s elevation to the papacy and he enjoys broad popularity in the US.

Menjivar-Ayala has not made statements outright about the war but is clearly not distancing himself from the pontiff’s remarks.

“We are not approaching this from a partisan political standpoint, but from a moral one. Morality is not something that pertains solely to one’s private life, but also to how I treat others, how I conduct my public life, how I perform my work, and how I engage with society,” he said.

The bishop avoids naming any members of the Trump administration even when asked direct questions about leadership decisions and rhetoric.

Meanwhile Trump and his circle’s overwrought religious claims have noticeably soared since the first attempt to assassinate him in 2024, from which he maintains he may have been saved by God’s will and a few weeks ago, he posted an AI generated image depicting himself as Jesus.

In response to Maga and the religious right’s justification for white Christian nationalism, Menjivar-Ayala presents his opposing view by referring to the root of the church’s “social doctrine” on immigration.

“The church bases its teaching, its social doctrine, on the Holy Scriptures and the Gospel. The defense of immigrants’ rights is … grounded in the Gospel and the Holy Scriptures. The prophets denounce the mistreatment of the poor, foreigners, widows, and orphans,” he said.

Quoting the Bible, he went on: “In Matthew 25, Jesus identifies himself precisely with the poor, with prisoners, and with immigrants, and then says ‘Whatever you did for one of these least ones, you did for me.’ “I won’t stop talking about what matters to people today because I am committed to everyone. I’ll keep talking about things that have to do with people’s reality. I’ll keep standing up for immigrants, I’ll keep fighting to ensure they’re treated fairly, humanely and with compassion.”

Menjívar-Ayala had a serious demeanor, but looked calm. He was wearing his clericals: a simple black shirt and pants, a black jacket with his white collar, and a large crucifix and sitting in a rather austere room, with the DC and the Maryland flags behind him. He was ordained a priest in this archdiocese in 2004 but will be making the next stage of his journey soon.

In his acceptance speech last Friday after his promotion to bishop, he said that he was going to West Virginia to learn. “Above all, I want to listen to the poor,” he said.

It’s personal for him. He still remembers when he was only 11 seeing people being massacred in the Sumpul River, in Chalatenango, very close to his Nueva Trinidad home village in a rural part of El Salvador close to the border with Honduras. He and his family narrowly survived and escaped to the district of El Paraíso. He recalls living in poverty and the key role the church had in helping people organize and unionize.

But ultimately it wasn’t enough for him: he left as a teenager and tried to move to the US, where his sister was living. He would need three attempts to succeed: in the first, he was turned back in Mexico; in the second, in Guatemala. The third time he ended up in a Mexican jail in the 1990s and his brother and two cousins paid a bribe to liberate him. Then, he and his brother hopped into a smuggler’s car trunk, which finally got them to San Ysidro, near Los Angeles. He was 19 and had not graduated high school.

“I don’t recommend it,” he recalled of his perilous and illegal journey. “You risk your own life.”

In California, he worked many different jobs: as a receptionist in the law firm where his sister worked, in construction and as a painter. He applied for asylum, which was denied, but finally he obtained humanitarian protection. He didn’t see his parents for seven years during which time loved ones back in El Salvador, including his grandparents and another sister, died. He remembers trying to make the most of his days, learning English in classes after work and studying for his GED. His interview with the Guardian was conducted in Spanish.

Later, he moved to Maryland and began working for the church in a Catholic parish there, which put him on the path to a green card and 16 years after crossing the border, now a priest, he became a US citizen, in 2006.

In 2022, Pope Francis named him auxiliary bishop.

“I’ve lived through that story. I am part of the history of migration in the United States, and at the same time, it’s very hopeful to know that I’m also part of the story of overcoming adversity,” he said.

He suffers distress when hearing that 55% of Americans favor “deporting all immigrants who are in the US illegally”, according to a Harvard/Harris poll released last week. That is a rise in support for a “mass deportation” regime compared to the same poll released in March, even if other polls showed a majority disapproving of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s most aggressive crackdown methods at the height of the confrontations in Minneapolis.

Menjivar-Ayala attributes anti-immigration sentiment, instead of, say, maintaining people’s protected status, and legislative reform to offer more legal pathways, to a “lack of information” that “raises fears”.

“Immigrants contribute to the economy: they fill essential jobs, and pay taxes,” he said.

As an auxiliary bishop in the diverse Washington archdiocese, Menjivar-Ayala has worked with immigrants to create plans for them in case they get arrested and deported, in a moment when even churches are no longer always considered reliable sanctuaries.

His new destination is the diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, which comprises West Virginia. It is the state with the lowest percentage of foreign-born residents. Only 2.4% of West Virginians are Latino, and 93% of its residents identify as white, while 40% of parishioners in the Washington archdiocese are Latino, according to the Associated Press.

He spins the contrast into a compliment.

“The fact that they are sending me to a state where there aren’t many immigrants means a lot because it shows that immigrants have the ability to adapt, to embrace a new way of life, to adjust to a new environment”, he said.

But he’s starkly aware that West Virginia is one of the poorest states in the country, and its reality is often “poverty, marginalization, exclusion, and a lack of basic services such as water, internet access, and schools”. One of his main focuses will be young people. He promises to work with them “so they can stay in West Virginia and contribute, so they don’t have to leave”.

Menjivar-Ayala is replacing The Right Rev Mark Brennan, 79 – who spotted him as a young future priest and sent him to seminary. During his term, Brennan had to handle the aftermath of serious allegations against his predecessor, of sexual and financial misconduct, where the church authorities were accused of looking the other way for years. Michael Bransfield, a former bishop, ultimately issued an apology and repaid $441,000 to the diocese, but the damage was done. Menjivar-Ayala recognises that he hasn’t had the time to fully investigate the issues involved, but he praised Brennan’s work to rebuild reliability. In his opinion, it’s now his job to keep carrying out that mission with integrity “so that the trust he [Brennan] has built can be maintained”.

When asked about those who have lost trust and hope not only in the Catholic church, but in changing the reality in dark times, the bishop encouraged people to act. Especially on behalf of people who can’t take action.

“We can all do something. We need to use the opportunities we have to take action”, he said. “We need to learn how to defend our rights. Especially those who have a legal status, it’s important to speak out, to show solidarity, to get involved in the fight, to go out and vote, not to be afraid.”

In an understated way but with a discernible touch of grit, he concluded: “Participation in political and social life is important for change to happen.”