‘Being Treated Disrespectfully’: Pope Leo On Trump’s Treatment Of Immigrants In Fresh Criticism

Last Updated:November 19, 2025, 23:34 IST

Pope Leo criticised Donald Trump’s immigration policies, urging humane treatment for immigrants and questioning alignment with Catholic teachings, as reported by The Guardian.

Elected in May after the death of Pope Francis, Pope Leo has in recent weeks made several critical remarks on Trump's immigration policies. (AP File)

Pope Leo has criticised US President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, saying foreigners in the US are being treated in an “extremely disrespectful way".

“I think we have to look for ways of treating people humanely, treating people with the dignity that they have. If people are in the United States illegally, there are ways to treat that. There are courts; there’s a system of justice," Leo told reporters on Tuesday.

He pointed out that “every country has a right to determine who and how and when people enter".

“But when people are living good lives, and many of them for 10, 15, 20 years, to treat them in a way that is extremely disrespectful, to say the least – and there’s been some violence, unfortunately – I think that the bishops have been very clear in what they said," he added.

According to The Guardian, Leo, the first US pontiff in the history of Catholic church, made the remarks in response to questions about a statement adopted last week during a special assembly of US bishops that criticised the Trump administration’s mass deportations and lamented the fear and anxiety caused by immigration raids.

Elected in May after the death of Pope Francis, Leo has in recent weeks made several critical remarks on Trump’s immigration policies.

In September, Pope Leo called the US’s move against immigrants “inhuman" and in October he questioned whether Trump’s policies were in line with the Catholic church’s teachings.

“Someone who says I am against abortion but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life," he said.

The Guardian quoted federal court records stating that more than 97% of immigrants detained in the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz" in Chicago had no criminal conviction.

The record was released on Friday contradicting the Trump administration’s portrayal of the immigrants.

The DHS assistant secretary Tricia Mclaughlin called the Chicago data “horrendously misleading" in a statement emailed to The Guardian.

News world ‘Being Treated Disrespectfully’: Pope Leo On Trump’s Treatment Of Immigrants In Fresh Criticism

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