VATICAN CITY (TND) — Pope Francis called efforts to close the U.S. southern border “madness” during a 60 Minutes interview Sunday.
The pope argued countries should allow migrants to cross their borders and later decide whether they can stay.
“The migrant has to be received. Thereafter, you see how you’re going to deal with them,” he said. “Maybe you have to send them back, I don’t know. But each case ought to be considered humanely.”Earlier this year, President Joe Biden urged Congress to advance legislation aimed at addressing the border’s issues, claiming it would allow him to “shut down” entry points until they were “back under control.” However, Pope Francis said Sunday migration helps advance a nation.
“Migration is something that makes a country grow. They say that you Irish migrated and brought the whiskey and that the Italians migrated and brought the mafia ... But migrants sometimes suffer a lot,” he told correspondent Norah O’Donnell.
The pope also argued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s attempts to shut down a nonprofit providing migrants shelter constitute “sheer madness.” Paxton sued Annunciation House earlier this month for its perceived “systemic criminal conduct” of sheltering migrants.
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“There are so many Pontius Pilates on the loose out there who see what is happening – the wars, the injustice, the crimes ... That is what happens when the heart hardens and becomes indifferent,” Pope Francis said. “We cannot remain indifferent in the face of such human dramas. The globalization of indifference is a very ugly disease.”
Annunciation House has denounced Paxton's lawsuit as “anti-faith” and “immoral.”
The pope’s support for migrants at the U.S. border aligns with his stance toward immigrants in Europe. In September, he reportedly criticized efforts to cast migration as a crisis during a visit to France.
“Those who risk their lives at sea do not invade, they look for welcome, for life” he said, according to the Associated Press. “As for the emergency, the phenomenon of migration is not so much a short-term urgency, always good for fueling alarmist propaganda, but a reality of our times.”
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