Pope Francis criticized the Trump administration's policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border in an interview published Wednesday by Reuters.
“It’s not easy, but populism is not the answer,” he said.
The pope told Reuters that he agreed with statements made last week by Catholic bishops in America who called the family separation policy "immoral."
"While protecting our borders is important, we can and must do better as a government, and as a society, to find other ways to ensure that safety," Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement released at the conference's spring assembly. "Separating babies from their mothers is not the answers and is immoral."
Francis told Reuters that he is "on the side of the bishops' conference."
“I believe that you cannot reject people who arrive,” he said, speaking about the migrant crisis that has sent hundreds of thousands of people into Europe. “You have to receive them, help them, look after them, accompany them and then see where to put them, but throughout Europe.”
He said that populists have been “creating psychosis” around the issue of immigration.
“Populism does not resolve things,” he said. “What resolves things is acceptance, study, prudence.”
The Trump administration in April directed prosecutors to pursue cases against all people suspected of crossing the border illegally as part of a “zero tolerance” immigration enforcement policy. Parents have been separated from their children as they face prosecution.
Nearly 2,000 children were separated from their families over a six-week period in April and May, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that Democrats are to blame for laws that mandate the family separations, however, no law requiring the separations exists.
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