Pope Francis lashes out Donald Trump over migrant deportations, raises 'major crisis' against refugee brothers, sisters

Pope Francis sharply criticized U.S. President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown in an unusual open letter sent to America's Catholic bishops on Tuesday. The pope, who earlier this year called Trump's plan to millions of migrants a 'disgrace', said it was wrong to assume that all undocumented immigrants were criminals, as per a report.

"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.

Francis, pope 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, Reuters reported.


In Tuesday's letter, the pontiff called the immigration crackdown a "major crisis" for the U.S. "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.

Trump, a Republican, stormed back into the White House promising to deport millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

He issued a flurry of executive actions to redirect military resources to support the mass deportation effort and empowered U.S. immigration officers to make more arrests, including at schools, churches and hospitals.

He acknowledged "the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival".

But he wrote that "the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families".

Deportation "places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defencelessness", he wrote.

Francis had warned as Trump returned to the White House last month that his pledge to carry out the largest deportation campaign in US history, by expelling millions of undocumented immigrants, would be a 'calamity'.

FAQs

Q1. Who is current US President?
A1. Incumbent President is Donald Trump.


Q2. What has Francis advised Donald Trump?
A2. Pope Francis had warned as Trump returned to the White House last month that his pledge to carry out the largest deportation campaign in US history, by expelling millions of undocumented immigrants, would be a 'calamity'.