Pope to Trump: Extend DACA
Pontiff calls family ‘cradle of life’
Weighing in on two areas of disagreement with a U.S. president with whom he has already clashed, Pope Francis said Monday that climate science is clearly true, and that President Donald Trump should allow young immigrants to stay in the United States if he is truly “pro-life.”
“I have heard it said that the president of the United States presents himself as a man who is pro-life, and if he is a good pro-life [man], then he will understand that the family is the cradle of life, and that it must be defended as a unit,” Francis said in response to a question about Mr. Trump’s decision to discontinue the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that allowed immigrants brought to the United States as children to live and work or study in the U.S.
The pope’s comments were reportedbyAmericamagazine.
In the same conversation with reporters, aboard a plane leaving Colombia after a five-day trip to his native South America, Francis returned to the subject of climate change, a favorite for the pontiff who was a scientist early in his career. Anyone who doubts that the climate is changing should listen to scientists, who “speak very clearly,” he said.
OnDACA, Francis said that he would like to study the American policy more thoroughly, but he is troubled by the possibility of young immigrants in any nation being compelled to move away from their families. He expressed interest in Congress extending what Mr. Trump has ended, saying he has “hope that it can berethought a little.”
Also on Monday, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh announced that his office has joined three other states in filing a lawsuit to stop the Trump administration from rolling back the DACA program. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in the Northern District of California, alleges that the administration violated the due process provisions of the Constitution as well as federal laws. The other states listed as plaintiffs are California, Maine and Minnesota.
Fifteen other states and the District of Columbia filed a similar lawsuit last week in the federal court in the Eastern District of New York to block the administration fromwinding down DACA.
Making pointed political comments while giving news conferences on his plane flights is nothing new for Francis. It was on a plane duringthe 2016 election campaign that the pope said that Mr. Trump’s plan of building a wall on the Mexican border “isnot Christian.”
Despite tension over that remarkand subsequent differences of opinion, Francis and Mr. Trump met at the Vatican in May — and Francis pushed the issue of climate change in person, handing Mr. Trump a copy of his own science-laden encyclical about the moral responsibility to protect the environment.