Feb. 11 (UPI) — Trump administration “border czar” Tom Homan took exception to Pope Francis’ criticism of U.S. immigration enforcement and mass deportations that are underway.
“I’ve got harsh words for the pope,” Homan, said in response to question posed on Tuesday by a Fox News journalist as reported by CBS News.
“He ought to focus on his work and leave enforcement to us,” Homan added.
Homan pointed out the Vatican fully enforces its border.
“He wants to attack us securing our border? He’s got a wall around the Vatican, does he not?” Homan asked.
“So he has a wall to protect his people and himself, but we can’t have a wall around the United States,” Homan told media.
“I wish he’d stick to the Catholic Church and fix that and leave the border enforcement to us.”
Homan said he is a lifelong member of the Catholic Church.
His comments followed the release of a letter that Pope Francis circulated on Monday to Catholic bishops in the United States and was published by the Catholic Church on Tuesday.
He called President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts a “major crisis” and called for compassion.
“I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations,” Francis wrote.
“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.”
The pontif, 88, affirmed the right of nations to self-defense and to protect their communities against those who commit or have committed “violent or serious crimes” but alluded to most migrants as the “poorest and most marginalized” of people.
“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,” Francis said.
“The true common good is promoted when society and government, with creativity and strict respect for the rights of all … welcomes, protects, promotes and integrates the most fragile, unprotected and vulnerable,” Francis wrote.
Pope Francis has defended migrants and refugees since he was made pope in 2013.
His comments come after Vatican City in January imposed stricter immigration laws that fine and imprison for up to four years violators who illegally enter the city-state.
