Pope Leo's pick for West Virginia bishop came to the US illegally from El Salvador

Pope Leo XIV’s pick to be West Virginia’s new bishop notably came to the United States as a teenager illegally. Evelio Menjivar-Ayala is originally from El Salvador.

The Pope’s choice to be West Virginia’s only bishop was first reported by journalist Christopher Hale, who wrote that Menjivar-Ayala attempted multiple times to enter the United States illegally, finally being successful in 1990, when he was smuggled across the border in the truck of a car into California.

"It’s a remarkable choice in a state that is over 90% white and voted for President Trump by 42 points," Hale wrote.

Addressing Georgetown University graduates in 2024, Menjivar-Ayala said, "In 1990, I arrived in Los Angeles, California with only a change of clothes in a backpack, but full of dreams. As most immigrants do, I did any kind of job I could get: receptionist, construction, janitorial work, painting, youth ministry. Meanwhile, I took English classes at night, and I also studied for the high school equivalency degree," per the Catholic Standard.

He was ordained as a priest for the The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington in 2004 and ordained as a bishop for Washington in 2023. He arrived in the US at the age of 18 and later applied for asylum and gained a work permit and green card, before becoming a US citizen in 2006.

The appointment of Menjivar-Ayala as the bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston comes after Pope Leo accepted the resignation of Bishop Mark Brennan.