NDLON THANKS POPE FRANCIS FOR POWERFUL DEFENSE OF MIGRANTS

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 11 – Pope Francis today forcefully defended immigrants and refugees against the Trump Administration’s dehumanizing attacks and mass-deportation campaign. He reminded the world – and the United States in particular – that immigrants and refugees possess “the infinite and transcendent dignity of every human person.”

“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. He added, “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 Pope’s words were a striking rebuke to the brutality unleashed against immigrants and refugees by President Trump, his Administration and his fellow Republicans.

Writing to the Catholic bishops of the United States, Francis recalled that Jesus Christ himself confronted “the difficult experience of being expelled from his own land because of an imminent risk to his life, and from the experience of having to take refuge in a society and a culture foreign to his own.”

The Pope urged all people of good will “not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters.” He called on Our Lady of Guadalupe, “la Virgen Morena,” to protect individuals and families who live in fear or pain due to migration and/or deportation.”

The following is a statement from Pablo Alvarado, Co-Executive Director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON):

“Thank you, Pope Francis. And God bless you.”

You can read the Pope’s letter in English or Spanish.

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