Pope Francis: ‘To repel migrants … is a grave sin’

Pope Francis on Wednesday denounced those who willingly work to repel migrants as sinners, calling out restrictive immigration laws, border militarization and rejection as tools that endanger migrants.

Francis opened his weekly address — usually heavy on theology — with a call to think about both people who “are crossing seas and deserts to reach a land where they can live in peace and safety,” and people who actively oppose migration.

“It must be said clearly: There are those who work systematically and with every means possible to repel migrants. To repel migrants. And this, when done with awareness and responsibility, is a grave sin. Let us not forget what the Bible tells us: ‘You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him,’” Francis said.

Francis said migrants cross “sea and desert” to seek refuge.

“And when I say ‘sea,’ in the context of migrations, I also mean ocean, lake, river, all the insidious bodies of water that so many brothers and sisters all over the world are forced to cross to reach their destination. And ‘desert’ is not only that of sand and dunes, or rocks, but they are also those inaccessible and dangerous territories, such as forests, jungles, steppes where migrants walk alone, left to their own devices. Migrants, sea and desert,” he said.

The pope has for years pushed for more humane migration policies, often butting heads with political leaders who favor restrictions.

In 2016, Francis laid a wreath to honor migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border amid a hotly contested U.S. election, and upon his return to the Vatican, he said, “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not of building bridges, is not Christian.”

The context of the pope’s statement — a reference to then-GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump – set off a political back-and-forth that culminated in Trump’s visit as president to the Vatican in 2017.

Francis on Wednesday called the Mediterranean Sea "a cemetery” and recalled the story of Mbengue Nyimbilo “Pato” Crepin, a Cameroonian man whose wife and six-year-old daughter died in the desert between Libya and Tunisia last year.

The pope more broadly described the commonalities of human rights violations along migrant routes both toward Europe and in the Americas and the abandonment of migrants by both governments and smugglers.

“In the time of satellites and drones, there are migrant men, women and children that no one must see: They are hidden. Only God sees them and hears their cry. And this is a cruelty of our civilization,” Francis said.

Francis, himself the son and grandson of Italian immigrants to Argentina, spoke out against current migrant routes — the “deserts” — but said the pathway to safer migration is not in stricter restrictions on human movement.

“Brothers and sisters, we can all agree on one thing: Migrants should not be in those seas and in those lethal deserts. But it is not through more restrictive laws, it is not with the militarization of borders, it is not with rejection that we will obtain this result,” Francis said.

“Instead, we will obtain it by extending safe and legal access routes for migrants, providing refuge for those who free from war, violence, persecution and various disasters; we will obtain it by promoting in every way a global governance of migration based on justice, fraternity and solidarity. And by joining forces to combat human trafficking, to stop the criminal traffickers who mercilessly exploit the misery of others.”