Pope denounces Trump immigration plans [News/Analysis]

February 11, 2025

Wading directly into a heated American political debate, Pope Francis has explicitly condemned President Trump’s plan for mass deportation of illegal immigrants.

In a letter to the American bishops, released February 11, the Pontiff refers to the “delicate moments that you are living” as leaders of the Church in the US during “a decisive moment in history.” In terms much harsher than American prelates have used in their responses to the Trump policy, he calls upon the bishops, and all of the American faithful, “not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters.”

Recalling that Jesus and the Holy Family lived as “emigrants in Egypt and refugees there,” the Pontiff insists that the Church must uphold “the infinite and transcendent dignity of every human person.”

For that reason, the Pope argues, the faithful should “consider the legitimacy of norms and public policies in the light of the dignity of the person and his or her fundamental rights, not vice versa.”

Thus while he acknowledges the right of a state to protect itself from criminal immigrants, but Francis rejects the conclusion that a violation of immigration law is itself a criminal act. He writes:

The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality. At the same time, one must recognize the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival. That said, the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness.

The Pope goes on to say that “an authentic rule of law is verified precisely in the dignified treatment that all people deserve, especially the poorest and most marginalized.” With a nod to the need for “a policy that regulates orderly and legal migration,” he adds that such a policy “cannot come through the privilege of some and the sacrifice of others.” He concludes this argument with a warning: “What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly.”

From this clear rejection of the Trump administration’s policy, the Pontiff goes on to join the debate that Vice President Vance sparked when he said that the US government has a moral obligation to put the interests of American citizens first. Invoking the same term that Vance used, the ordo amoris, the Pope writes: “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups.” Instead, referring to the parable of the Good Samaritan, he says, “The true ordo amoris… reflects “the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.”

In what might be interpreted as a warning against fascism, the Pope’s letter then hints darkly that concerns about “personal, community, or national identity” could lead to “an ideological criterion that distorts social life and imposes the will of the strongest as the criterion of truth.”

Lauding the American bishops for their work with refugees and migrants, the Pope promises: “God will richly reward all that you do for the protection and defense of those who are considered less valuable, less important or less human.”—News/analysis by Phil Lawler

 

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Further information:

• Pope Francis supports U.S. Bishops in migrant advocacy (Vatican News)