Pope Francis writes to US bishops criticizing Trump’s deportations

Pope Francis delivered an extraordinary open letter to America’s Catholic bishops on Tuesday, harshly criticizing U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Earlier this year, the pope referred to Trump’s intention to send millions of migrants to the United States as a “disgrace” and stated that it was incorrect to believe that all undocumented immigrants were criminals.

“I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church … not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters,” the pope stated.

As pope since 2013, Francis has been a harsh opponent of Trump’s immigration policy, calling the president “not Christian” in his immigration beliefs in 2016.

The pontiff referred to the immigration crackdown as a “major crisis” for the United States in his letter on Tuesday.

“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,” the pontiff stated.

With a vow to deport millions of illegal immigrants, Trump, a Republican, swept back into the White House.

He gave U.S. immigration agents the authority to conduct additional arrests, including in hospitals, schools, and places of worship, and he enacted a series of executive acts to reallocate military resources to aid in the mass deportation campaign.