"Stick to Catholic Church:" Homan to Pope over deportation remarks

On Tuesday, Tom Homan, border czar under US President Donald Trump, expressed strong criticism of Pope Francis after the pope labeled US deportations of undocumented migrants as a "major crisis." 

"I wish he'd stick to the Catholic Church and fix that and leave border enforcement to us," Homan stated, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

In an open letter to America’s Catholic bishops on Tuesday, Pope Francis delivered a sharp critique of Trump’s immigration policies. He condemned the criminalization of migrants and the reliance on forceful measures, warning that such actions "will end badly."

The pope, who previously described Trump’s plan to deport millions of migrants as a "disgrace," stressed that it is incorrect to label all undocumented immigrants as 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," he stated.

Since becoming pope in 2013, Francis has consistently opposed Trump’s immigration strategies. During Trump's first presidential campaign in 2016, he famously remarked that the then-candidate was "not Christian" due to his views on immigration.

In his latest letter, Francis described the ongoing immigration crackdown as a "major crisis" for the US. He warned, "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."