Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on November 18, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
Add as preferred source on GooglePope Leo criticizes Trump's immigration policies as 'extremely disrespectful' and urges humane treatment of US migrants.
ROME (Reuters) -Pope Leo renewed his criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump's hard-line anti-immigration policies on Tuesday, saying foreigners living in the United States were being treated by the administration in a manner that was "extremely disrespectful".
Speaking to reporters in Castel Gandolfo, his residence outside Rome, the pope called for people in the U.S. "to look for ways of treating people humanely, treating people with the dignity that they have."
Leo, the first U.S. pontiff, has expressed his disapproval of the Trump administration's targeting of immigrants in increasingly strong terms in recent weeks.
In September, he called their treatment "inhuman", drawing a heated backlash from some prominent conservative Catholics.
Leo was asked by a journalist on Tuesday about a November 13 statement from the U.S. Catholic bishops' conference, which rebuked the Trump administration's polices and called for "meaningful immigration reform."
"It's a very important statement," the pope said. " I would just invite all people in the United States to listen to them."
He said individual countries have a right to police their borders, but that many immigrants in the U.S. are "living good lives" and they were being treated "in a way that is extremely disrespectful, to say the least".
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee, editing by Gavin Jones)
Immigration is the process of moving to a country to live there permanently or temporarily. It often involves legal procedures and can be influenced by various factors such as economic opportunities, family reunification, or humanitarian needs.
Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms that belong to every person in the world, from birth until death. They include the right to life, freedom of speech, and the right to work and education.
The financial community consists of individuals and organizations involved in the management, investment, and regulation of financial resources. This includes banks, investment firms, and regulatory bodies.
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