Pope Leo XIV has launched a fresh volley at Donald Trump over his administration’s immigration policies.
While speaking to reporters at Castel Gandolfo, his papal vacation residence outside Rome, the first American pope doubled down on his criticism of Trump’s mission to root out illegal immigration in the country. He accused the administration of treating foreigners in the U.S. in a way that was “extremely disrespectful.”
Many Catholic advocates have argued that the president’s practices conflict with Christian teaching. The vast majority of those rounded up in the anti-migrant drive—as many as nine out of 10, according to one analysis—have been Catholics from Latin America. America’s Roman Catholic bishops have condemned the Trump administration’s “indiscriminate mass deportation.”
“We have to look for ways of treating people humanely, treating people with the dignity that they have. If people are in the United States illegally, there are ways to treat that. There are courts. There’s a system of justice,” the Pope said.
“No one has said that the United States should have open borders. I think every country has the right to determine who enters, how, and when.”
The Pope added, “when people have lived good lives—many of them for 10, 15, 20 years—treating them in a way that is, to say the least, extremely disrespectful, and with instances of violence, is troubling.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Trump has vowed to deport “millions” of immigrants in what he claims will be the largest mass deportation in American history. The Trump administration announced last month it had carried out more than 527,000 deportations so far this year.
“The Trump Administration is on pace to shatter historic records and deport nearly 600,000 illegal aliens by the end of President Donald Trump’s first year since returning to office,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “More than 2 million illegal aliens have left the U.S. including 1.6 million who have voluntarily self-deported and over 527,000 deportations.”
The Pope’s latest comments come days after he urged U.S. immigration authorities to allow detained migrants to receive communion.
Responding to reports that migrants held at an Illinois facility were blocked from receiving communion, he called on the Trump administration to respect migrants’ dignity and religious liberty, saying authorities should “allow pastoral workers to assist with the needs of these people.”
Additionally, Trump’s nemesis, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, told NBC Chicago he traveled to the Vatican Wednesday morning for a meeting with the Pope, who is from suburban Chicago where the pair discussed the deportation raids.
“[The Pope] had read about my work in Illinois to stand up for immigrants and he believes strongly that it’s our obligation as human beings to stand up for one another and especially because immigrants are often the most vulnerable,” the governor said.
Trump issued a call last month for Pritzker to be jailed for blocking his administration’s deportation efforts, after which the governor said “I genuinely think there is something wrong with him.”
“I wish that his family would intervene, because I do think he needs mental health help, and I don’t think anybody around him that works for him is going to do that, because they’re benefiting from his failure of mental health, his dementia,” Pritzker said of the 79-year-old. “I wish somebody would help out the president of the United States.”
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