By Joshua McElwee
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis on Sunday criticized President-elect Donald Trump’s announced plan to significantly step up immigration control measures across the United States in the days after his inauguration.
In an interview on Italian television, the pontiff said it would be a “disgrace” if Trump went ahead with the plan, in unusually forceful language for the leader of the global Catholic Church.
“This would force migrants, who have nothing, to pay the unpaid bill,” the pope said. “It doesn’t work. You don’t solve problems that way.”
The pope’s remarks were made during a video link from his Vatican residence with the program “Che Tempo Che Fa” on Italian Channel 9.
Francis, leader of the Church of 1.4 billion members, is generally cautious when speaking on political issues.
The pope has made welcoming migrants a key theme of his nearly 12-year pontificate, and he has previously criticized Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric. During the 2016 election, he said Trump was “not a Christian” in his opinion.
New Trump administration officials said Saturday that the president-elect is reconsidering plans for immigration operations in Chicago next week, following reports of those plans.
Earlier Sunday, the Catholic Archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Blase Cupich, also criticized the planned raids. “It would be an affront to the dignity of all people and all communities,” the cardinal said in a statement.
