Pope Francis said Donald Trump’s plans to deport illegal migrants from the United States would be a “disgrace” if they came to fruition.
Speaking to an Italian television show from his Vatican residence, Francis said that if the plans came to fruition, Trump would make “poor wretches who have nothing” foot the bill.
“It’s not right. That’s not how you solve problems,” he said.
Trump vowed to launch largest deportation of undocumented immigrants in United States history shortly after taking office.
In a message to Trump shared Monday, Pope Francis sent him “cordial greetings” and urged him to lead a society with “no place for hatred, discrimination or exclusion” and to promote “peace and reconciliation between peoples.
The pope is known to attach great importance to the issue of migrants. During a public hearing last August, he declared that “systematically working by all means to drive out migrants” was “a grave sin”.
In 2016, before the first presidential election won by Trump, Pope Francis declared that “he who only thinks of building walls… and not of building bridges is not 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 am only saying that this man is not a Christian if he said things like that. that way and I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. »
Francis and Trump later met during Trump and his family’s visit to Rome in 2017.
Ahead of the 2024 US presidential election, the pope refused to say whether people should vote for Trump or his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris, simply urging people to choose “the lesser evil” according to their conscience.
During Sunday evening’s interview, Francis also addressed the issue of migration to Europe, saying there was “a lot of cruelty” and that everyone had “the right to stay at home and the right to emigrate”.
The Pope also added that some of the countries in southern Europe that receive the most migrants “do not have children and need labor.”
“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’s as if there was an international desire for self-destruction,” the pope said.
Francis, 88, has held the post since 2013, when he was elected to succeed Pope Benedict XVI.
