Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., on Tuesday asked a Catholic bishop during a House subcommittee hearing about the Roman Catholic Church's wall around its Vatican headquarters in light of Pope Francis' recently voiced opposition to additional physical barriers on the United States' southern border.

"Regarding the sovereignty of the church and as it relates and compares with the sovereignty of our nation, the church has been a light for the world for 2,000 years — a place of refuge, a place where a child of God could seek spiritual prosperity," said Higgins, ranking member of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security, Facilitation, and Operations.

"But the sovereignty of the church has been protected by the security of the church. One of the most famous walls in history is the wall around the Vatican. I would ask you, bishop, in the area that your serve, do your churches lock their doors after hours?" he asked.

"Many of them do," replied Bishop Mark Seitz , the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops representative for the Catholic Diocese in El Paso, Texas. "I would point out that that wall you refer to at the Vatican also has arms embracing and opening to the world, if you've been to the ... "

Higgins interjected.

"As we do. We have 328 ports of entry — legal entry — into the United States of America," the lawmaker said.

Seitz appeared before the committee to share how local nongovernmental organizations were handling the release of as many as hundreds of migrants in southern border cities daily. Catholic charitable groups have been at the forefront of outside groups trying to help house those people and care for them in the hours and days after being released from federal custody.

Higgins asked what the Catholic Church was doing in the Central American countries, where nearly 70% of people identify as Catholic and the Church has an influential position because of that.

Seitz said his counterparts in Central America are "working very hard to dissuade people from leaving their homes." Higgins pushed for details on how.

"There is an active engagement, but the problem is the governments are so weak and so corrupt that there is no authority on the governmental level that people can go to. The Church is about the only one ... " Seitz said.