Pope Francis sharply criticised U.S. President Donald Trump’s mass deportations of migrants in an open letter to U.S. Catholic bishops on Tuesday.

The head of around 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide described the crackdown on irregular immigration initiated by Mr Trump as a “major crisis” for the United States.

A nation’s right to protect its population from those who have become criminals before or after their immigration must be recognised, the pope wrote.

Mr Francis noted that the deportation of people who have left their countries of origin due to extreme poverty, great insecurity, exploitation, persecution or severe environmental destruction violates their dignity.

The pope said a well-formed conscience must critically assess and oppose any policy that implicitly or explicitly “identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality.”

In the letter, the pontiff appealed to all the faithful of the Catholic Church and all men and women of goodwill not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering.

Mr Francis has criticised Mr Trump’s deportation plans on several occasions and recently described them as a “disgrace” in a TV interview.

(dpa/NAN)