Pope says Trump’s plan to deport migrants ‘outrageous’
Pope Francis has said Donald Trump’s plan to deport illegal immigrants from the US would be “disgraceful” if successful.
Speaking to an Italian TV program from his Vatican residence, Francis said that if the plans went ahead, Trump would “make the poor poorer with nothing to pay the bills”.
“That’s not right. That’s not how you solve problems,” he said.
Trump promises to launch largest-ever deportation of undocumented immigrants in American history shortly after he took office.
In a message to Trump shared on Monday, Pope Francis offered him “cordial greetings” and called on him to lead a society with “no room for hatred, discrimination or exclusion” and “peace and reconciliation among peoples.” Urged to promote.
The Pope is known to hold the issue of migrants dear to him. During a public meeting last August he said it was “a grave sin” to “work systematically by all means to drive away migrants.”
In 2016, before the first presidential election, won by Trump, Pope Francis said, “A man who only thinks about building walls… and not about building bridges is not a Christian”.
Referring to Trump’s promise to build a wall on the Mexican border to prevent migrants from entering the United States, Francis said, “I only say that this man is not a Christian if he said such things. We must see that Has he said these things?” That way and I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.”
Francis and Trump later met when Trump and his family visited Rome in 2017.
Ahead of the US presidential election in 2024, the Pope refused to say whether people should vote for Trump or his Democratic rival Kamala Harris, only urging people to choose the “lesser evil” according to their conscience.
During the interview on Sunday evening, Francis also addressed the issue of migration to Europe, saying there was “a lot of cruelty” there and that everyone had “the right to stay at home and the right to migrate.”
The Pope also said that some of the southern European countries, where most migrants arrive, “have no children and are in need of manpower”.
“In some of these countries, entire villages are empty. A good, well-thought-out migration policy would also help countries like Italy and Spain,” he said.
In another part of the interview, Francis was asked about the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and said he did not know why it was so difficult to make peace.
“I don’t know why… it seems as if there is an international campaign towards self-destruction,” the Pope said.
Francis, 88, has held the post since 2013, when he was chosen to succeed Pope Benedict XVI.
