Pope Francis slammed US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in an unusual open letter sent to America’s Catholic bishops on Tuesday.
According to the pope, who earlier this year called Trump’s plan to millions of migrants a disgrace, it was wrong to assume that all undocumented immigrants were criminals.
“I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church… not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters,” said the pontiff.
Media Talk Africa reports that Francis,who has been the head of the Catholic church since 2013, has been sharply critical of Trump’s immigration policies, and in 2016 said the president was not Christian in his views on immigration.
In the letter on Tuesday, the pontiff called the immigration crackdown a major crisis for the US.
“What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly,” said the pope.
Recall that Trump stormed back into the White House promising to deport millions of immigrants in the US illegally.
He issued a flurry of executive actions to redirect military resources to support the mass deportation effort and empowered US immigration officers to make more arrests, including at schools, churches and hospitals.
