Pope Francis has criticized the incoming US administration of Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan, calling it a “disgrace”.
Speaking in an interview with Italian television station Canale 9, the pope was responding to a question about the Trump administration’s intention to use aggressive immigration executive orders to expel undocumented immigrants.
Trump, who will be inaugurated today, is planning significant changes to immigration policy.
“If this is true, it will be a shame because the poor unfortunate people, who have nothing, are being forced to pay the price. This will not solve the problems. This is not the way to solve things,” the pope said in an interview on Sunday.
Pope Francis has placed particular emphasis on supporting migrants during his ministry, stressing that they should be accepted and integrated into society. The topic of migration is also particularly important on a personal level for the pope, who recalled his family’s experience in his autobiography.
In 1927, his grandparents and father planned to travel from Italy to Argentina on the ship Principessa Mafalda, which sank, but later managed to cross on a safer journey.
Pope Francis has additionally shown his willingness to take a critical approach to the administration of Donald Trump by appointing Cardinal Robert McElroy as the new Archbishop of Washington. McElroy described the mass deportations as “inconsistent with Catholic doctrine.”
In 2016, Pope Francis declared that he considered Trump’s anti-immigration views “un-Christian”.
