Pope Francis Condemns Trump’s Deportation Plans as “Disgrace”

Pope Francis has sharply criticized President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportations of immigrants, calling them a “disgrace” that punishes the vulnerable, The Associated Press reports.

The pontiff’s remarks, delivered on a popular Italian talk show Sunday night, come just a day before Trump’s inauguration and nearly a decade after Francis declared Trump “not Christian” for proposing a wall on the US-Mexico border.

Speaking on the program “Che Tempo Che Fa,” Francis expressed his dismay at the prospect of large-scale deportations.

“If true, this will be a disgrace, because it makes the poor wretches who have nothing pay the bill” for the problem, Francis said, adding “This won’t do! This is not the way to solve things. That’s not how things are resolved.”

Trump, who has made mass deportations a cornerstone of his platform, is expected to enact significant changes to immigration policy immediately upon taking office. The issue has drawn widespread condemnation from various religious leaders, including the Catholic Church, with US bishops speaking out against these policies.

This is not the first time Pope Francis has directly criticized Trump’s immigration policies. Back in 2016, while traveling back from the Mexican border, the Pope famously said that anyone who seeks to build walls to keep out migrants “is not Christian”.

Many leading US Catholic figures have echoed the Pope’s concerns about mass deportations. Cardinal Robert McElroy, the incoming archbishop of Washington D.C., has stated such policies are “incompatible with Catholic doctrine,” invoking the Biblical principle of “welcoming the stranger.” In Chicago, Cardinal Blasé Cupich called the potential mass deportations in the area “profoundly disturbing” and a wound to the community. Speaking from the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, Cupich stressed that while governments must protect borders and communities, there is also a responsibility to protect human dignity and rights for all.

Pope Francis, whose own family immigrated from Italy to Argentina, has consistently made the plight of migrants a central focus of his papacy.