VATICAN CITY, Jan 20, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Pope Francis said Sunday US 
President-elect Donald Trump's promised large-scale deportation operation of 
undocumented migrants would be "a calamity".

Trump, who returns to the White House on Monday, has pledged to take a 
hardline stance against an estimated 11 million undocumented migrants in the 
United States.

"If it is true, it will be a calamity, because it makes the poor wretches who 
have nothing pay", Francis said during an interview with Italian television 
channel Nove.

The Republican billionaire has vowed to carry out "the largest deportation 
operation in American history," though any deportation program will face 
legal challenges, as well as potential refusals by some countries to accept 
deportees.

Francis, who received Trump at the Vatican during his first term in the White 
House in 2017 for a half-hour meeting, has criticised him for his anti-
migrant policies in the past.

In February 2016, when asked about the then-US presidential hopeful's anti-
immigration stance, he said: "Anyone, whoever he is, who only wants to build 
walls and not bridges is not a Christian".

And last year the Argentine Jesuit made a rare foray into the US election 
season to call harsh anti-migrant attitudes "madness" and criticise right-
wing US Catholic figures for overly conservative stances.

Trump, 78, has also vowed to end birthright citizenship, calling it 
"ridiculous", though it is guaranteed by the US constitution.

Analysts also expect him to issue executive orders on other aspects of 
immigration policy, and he is weighing declaring a national emergency, which 
would allow him to unlock Pentagon resources.