ROME – Pope Francis criticized the Trump administration’s mass deportation of migrants, stating that forcing people out of the country solely based on their immigration status strips them of their fundamental dignity and will have negative consequences.
In an unusual move, Francis addressed the U.S. migrant crackdown in a letter to American bishops who have condemned the deportations for their impact on the most vulnerable members of society.
As the first pope from Latin America, Francis has consistently emphasized the importance of supporting migrants, urging nations to welcome, safeguard, promote, and integrate those escaping conflicts, poverty, and environmental crises. He has stressed that governments should fulfill this duty to the best of their ability.
In the letter, Francis said nations have the right to defend themselves and keep their communities safe from criminals.
“That said, 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, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness,” he wrote.
Citing the biblical stories of migration, the people of Israel, the Book of Exodus and Jesus Christ’s own experience, Francis affirmed the right of people to seek shelter and safety in other lands and said he was concerned with what is going on in the United States.
“I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations,” Francis wrote. “The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality.”
It is one thing to develop a policy to regulate migration legally, it is another to expel people purely on the basis of their illegal status, he wrote.
“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,” he said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week that more than 8,000 people had been arrested in immigration enforcement actions since Trump took office Jan. 20. Some have been deported, others are being held in federal prisons while others are being held at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.
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