In a missive published this Tuesday, February 11 by the Vatican, Pope Francis severely pinning Donald Trump for his expulsion plan for undocumented migrants.
The second blade. Last January, on the eve of the inauguration of Donald TrumpPope Francis had already widely criticized the expulsion plan for undocumented migrants by the American president by calling him “calamity”. This time, the sovereign pontiff was even harder to warn against the migration policy desired by Donald Trump. He expressed himself This Tuesday, February 11, in a letter addressed to the “Bishops of the United States of America”. The words are strong, heavy with meaning, and chosen meticulously.
In his letter published by the Vatican, Pope Francis recalls that a “real rule of law is precisely verified in the worthy treatment that all deserve, in particular the poorest and most marginalized”. However, according to him, the expulsion of “people who, in many cases, have left their country for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, Achieving the dignity of many men and women, “he asserts.
If he recognizes “the right of a country to defend himself” against migrants who would have committed “serious crimes”, he says in total “disagreement with any measure which tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of certain migrants to the crime “. “I urge all the faithful of the Catholic Church, as well as all men and women of good will, not to yield to discriminatory stories and causing unnecessary sufferings to our migrant and refugee brothers. With charity and clarity, We are all called to live in solidarity and fraternity, to build bridges that bring us ever closer, to avoid the walls of ignominy, “he continues in his missive.
In his letter, a reference to “deportation”
But that’s not all. Pope Francis has split a shock declaration. He invokes Notre-Dame de Guadalupe asked him to “protect individuals and families who live in fear or pain because of migration and/or deportation”. He also claims to have “closely followed the major crisis which takes place in the United States with the launch of a massive expulsion program”, and at the same time renewed its hostility to any a priori association between migrant and crime.
As a reminder, from his first days at the White House, Donald Trump launched his policy to combat illegal immigration and set up “the biggest expulsion operation in the history of the United States” while the country Includes 11 million undocumented migrants, according to his last estimate in 2022.Almost half are from Mexico. They are therefore theoretically all threatened with expulsion.During his first mandate, Donald Trump achieved an average of 80,000 evictions per year, twice as much as under the presidency of Joe Biden.