Pope Francis says Trump immigration crackdown ‘shame’ Reuters

By Joshua McElwee

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis on Sunday criticized President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to dramatically tighten immigration enforcement across the United States in the days after his inauguration.

In an Italian television interview, the pope said it would be “shameful” for the head of the global Catholic Church if Trump went ahead with the plan.

“It will make the refugees who have nothing pay the unpaid bills,” the bishop said. “It doesn’t work. You don’t solve problems that way.”

The Pope’s remarks were made via video link from his Vatican residence to the “Che Tempo Che Fa” program on Italy’s Channel 9.

Francis, the leader of the 1.4 billion-member church, is often wary of weighing in on political issues.

The pope has made welcoming immigrants a central theme of his nearly 12-year pontificate and has previously criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. In the year During the 2016 election, Trump said he was “not Christian” in his views.

Officials of the incoming Trump administration said on Saturday that the president-elect is reconsidering plans for an immigration raid in Chicago next week, according to reports of the plans.

On Sunday, the Catholic Archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Blaise Kupcham, criticized the planned raid. “This affects the dignity of all people and communities,” the cardinal said in a statement.