Pope Francis leads the Angelus prayer from his window at the Vatican, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, on January 19, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Pope Francis on Sunday (January 19, 2025) said U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s promised large-scale deportation operation of undocumented migrants would be “a calamity”.
Mr. Trump, who returns to the White House on Monday, has pledged to take a hardline stance against an estimated 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States.
“If it is true, it will be a calamity, because it makes the poor wretches who have nothing pay”, said the Pope during an interview with Italian television channel Nove.
The Republican billionaire has vowed to carry out “the largest deportation operation in American history,” though any deportation program will face legal challenges, as well as potential refusals by some countries to accept deportees.
The Pope, who received Mr. Trump at the Vatican during his first term in the White House in 2017 for a half-hour meeting, has criticised him for his anti-migrant policies in the past.
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In February 2016, when asked about the then-U.S. presidential hopeful’s anti-immigration stance, he said: “Anyone, whoever he is, who only wants to build walls and not bridges is not a Christian”.
And last year the Argentine Jesuit made a rare foray into the U.S. election season to call harsh anti-migrant attitudes “madness” and criticise right-wing US Catholic figures for overly conservative stances.
Mr. Trump, 78, has also vowed to end birthright citizenship, calling it “ridiculous”, though it is guaranteed by the U.S. constitution.
Analysts also expect him to issue executive orders on other aspects of immigration policy, and he is weighing declaring a national emergency, which would allow him to unlock Pentagon resources.
Published – January 20, 2025 03:30 am IST
