Pope Francis said today that US President-elect Donald Trump's plan to mass deport undocumented migrants would be a “disaster“, Agence France-Presse reported, quoted by BTA.
“If it is true, it would be a disaster because it would make the poor, unfortunate people who have nothing pay“, the pope said in an interview with Italian television.
Donald Trump, who will take office for his second term tomorrow, has vowed to be uncompromising with the 11 million undocumented migrants in the US.
He said he would carry out “the largest deportation operation in American history“, although such a decision could face legal challenges and potential refusal by some countries to accept deportees, AFP notes.
Pope Francis, who received Trump for a half-hour audience during his first term in 2017, has previously criticized him for his anti-immigration stance. In February 2016, he said that “anyone who builds only walls and not bridges – is not Christian“.
Last year, the pope also intervened in the US election campaign, calling anti-immigrant sentiment “madness” and criticized right-wing Catholic figures in the United States for their overly conservative positions.
Trump also promised to end the acquisition of American citizenship for all those born in the United States, which he described as “ridiculous“, even though it is guaranteed by the Constitution.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum promised to protect her compatriots in the United States, ahead of the return of Donald Trump to the White House, who has promised to deport a large number of migrants without legal documents, reported Agence France-Presse, quoted by BTA.
“In this new stage that comes tomorrow with President Trump, above all, we must protect Mexicans“, Sheinbaum stressed during a statement in the central state of Puebla.
She referred, without naming them, to the plans of the next US president to deport a large number of migrants without documents living in the United States, including and millions of Mexicans.
Sheinbaum stressed that her government has hired lawyers to help Mexican immigrants in need in the more than 50 Mexican consulates in the United States.
“And if they decide to return to Mexico, they are welcome here, (we will receive them) with open arms“, she added.
The left-wing president recalled that her predecessor and mentor - Andrés Manuel López Obrador - got along “well“ with Donald Trump during his first term.
“That's why I think we will reach a good understanding, that we will understand each other“, Sheinbaum said. “But in any case, let it be understood correctly, let it be heard far and wide – "Mexico is no one's colony, no one's protectorate," she added.
In the border city of Tijuana, indigenous and migrant activists protested in front of the wall separating the two countries against Trump's plans, chanting "no human being is illegal."