By Joshua McElwee
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis on Sunday criticized President-elect Donald Trump's plan to ramp up immigration enforcement across the United States in the days following his inauguration.
In an Italian television interview, the Pope said it would be a “shame” for Trump to go ahead with the plan, in unusually strong language for the leader of the global Catholic Church.
“This will make migrants, who have nothing, pay the unpaid bill,” the Pope said. “It doesn't work. You don't solve problems that way.”
The Pope's statements came during a video call from his residence in the Vatican with the “Che Tempo Che Fa” program on Italian Channel 9.
Francis, the leader of the 1.4 billion-member church, is usually cautious about expressing his opinion on political issues.
The Pope has made welcoming immigrants a major theme of his nearly 12-year papacy, and he had previously criticized Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric. During the 2016 election, he said that Trump was “not a Christian” in his view.
The president-elect will reconsider plans for immigration raids in Chicago next week, officials in the incoming Trump administration said Saturday, following reports about the plans.
Earlier Sunday, Cardinal Blase Cupich, the Catholic Archbishop of Chicago, criticized the planned raids. “This would be an affront to the dignity of all persons and communities,” the cardinal said in a statement.
