Pope Francis on Tuesday issued a major rebuke of the Trump administration’s plans for the mass deportations of migrants, stressing that the forceful removal of people simply for their immigration status deprives them of their inherent dignity and "will end badly."

Francis wrote a letter to U.S. bishops, in which he appeared to criticize Vice President JD Vance's religious argument in defense of the deportation policies.

U.S. border czar Tom Homan responded to the pope, saying that the Vatican is a city-state surrounded by walls and that Francis should leave immigration enforcement to him. Homan, a Catholic, also said Francis should focus on fixing the Catholic Church rather than U.S. immigration policies.

"He wants to attack us for securing our border. He's got a wall around the Vatican, does he not?" Homan told reporters. "So he's got a wall around that protects his people and himself, but we can't have a wall around the United States."

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As the first Latin American pope, Francis has long held the position of caring for immigrants, pointing to the biblical command to "welcome the stranger" in calling on countries to welcome, protect, promote and integrate people fleeing conflicts, poverty and climate disasters.

Francis and President Donald Trump have long butted heads over the issue of immigration, including prior to Trump's first term, when Francis said in 2016 that anyone who builds a wall to keep migrants out was "not a Christian."

In his letter, Francis acknowledged that governments have the right to defend their countries and keep their communities safe from criminals, but he added the deportation of people who fled their countries due to various difficult circumstances damages their dignity.

"That said, the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness," he wrote.

Pointing to the Book of Exodus in the Bible and Jesus Christ's experience, Francis emphasized the right of people to seek shelter and safety in other lands and said the Trump administration's deportation plan was a "major crisis."

Anyone educated in Christianity, he said, "cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality."

"What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly," he continued.

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The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, thanked the pope for his letter.

"With you, we pray that the U.S. government keep its prior commitments to help those in desperate need," Broglio wrote. "Boldly I ask for your continued prayers so that we may find the courage as a nation to build a more humane system of immigration, one that protects our communities while safeguarding the dignity of all."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week that more than 8,000 people had been arrested since Trump took office Jan. 20 as part of the president's plan to detain and deport immigrants in the country illegally, although hundreds of those arrested have since been released back into the U.S. Others have been deported, are being held in federal prisons or are being held at the Guantánamo Bay Cuba, detention camp.

Vance, a Catholic convert, has defended the administration's deportation plans by citing a concept from medieval Catholic theology known in Latin as "ordo amoris," which he has said describes a hierarchy of care: prioritizing the family first, then the neighbor, community, fellow citizens and lastly those from other regions.

However, Francis sought to fact-check Vance's understanding of the concept.

"Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups," Francis wrote in his letter. "The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan,’ that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception."

As Homan referenced, the Vatican is a walled-in, 108-acre city-state inside Rome, and it recently increased sanctions for anyone who enters illegally. The law, approved in December, calls for people to face up to four years in prison and a fine of up to 25,000 euros, or $25,873, if they enter with "violence, threat or deception," including by evading security checkpoints.

The U.S. bishops conference had already released a statement condemning Trump’s immigration policies after his first executive orders.

Anyone "focused on the treatment of immigrants and refugees, foreign aid, expansion of the death penalty, and the environment, are deeply troubling and will have negative consequences, many of which will harm the most vulnerable among us," the statement said.

Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago praised Francis' letter, telling Vatican Media that it showed the pope viewed "the protection and advocacy for the dignity of migrants as the preeminent urgency at this moment."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Pope Francis' arm is in a sling Thursday after the Vatican confirmed he was injured in a fall, the second such incident in a matter of weeks.

The Vatican said Francis fell inside his residence Thursday morning and said he is now using a cloth sling to support his right arm. Francis also fell and injured his face just six weeks ago in December.

"This morning, due to a fall at the Santa Marta house, Pope Francis suffered a contusion on his right forearm, without fractures. The arm was immobilized as a precautionary measure," a statement said.

The falls are the latest in a series of health issues that have struck the pope, including longstanding knee issues and multiple surgeries in 2021 and 2023.

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Francis has pushed back on murmurs of his resignation. He wrote in an autobiography published on Tuesday that he is "well."

"The Church is governed using the head and the heart, not the legs," he wrote.

The fall comes just days after President Biden gifted Pope Francis the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor that can be granted in the U.S. The gift was sent over the phone, however, as Biden canceled a previously planned trip to Rome due to the California wildfires.

Instead, Biden bestowed the award on the pope during a phone call in which they also discussed efforts to promote peace and alleviate suffering around the world.

"Pope Francis is unlike any who came before," a White House announcement reads. "Above all, he is the People’s Pope – a light of faith, hope, and love that shines brightly across the world."

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It was the first time during his four years in office that Biden awarded the medal "with distinction," it said.

Biden, 82, leaves office on Jan. 20. The lifelong Catholic is also a recipient of the award with distinction, recognized when he was vice president by then-President Barack Obama in a surprise ceremony eight years ago. That was the only time in Obama's two terms when he awarded that version of the medal, according to the Associated Press.

President Joe Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction, the nation's highest civilian honor, to Pope Francis on Saturday.

The medal was scheduled to be presented to the pope in person in Rome during what was to be Biden's final overseas trip of his presidency, but Biden canceled his travel plans so he could monitor the wildfires in California.

Instead, Biden bestowed the award on the pope during a phone call in which they also discussed efforts to promote peace and alleviate suffering around the world.

"Pope Francis is unlike any who came before," a White House announcement reads. "Above all, he is the People’s Pope – a light of faith, hope, and love that shines brightly across the world."

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It was the first time during his four years in office that Biden awarded the medal "with distinction," it said.

Biden, 82, leaves office on Jan. 20. The lifelong Catholic is also a recipient of the award with distinction, recognized when he was vice president by then-President Barack Obama in a surprise ceremony eight years ago. That was the only time in Obama's two terms when he awarded that version of the medal, according to the Associated Press.

Both Biden and Francis have been weakened by global events, said Massimo Faggioli, an Italian academic and professor at Villanova University who follows the papacy.

"That is really hard to underestimate how tragic this moment is for both men in different ways," he said. "Because what could go wrong did go wrong in these few years."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. 

Pope Francis recently said that "fake news" was the root cause of the assassination attempts against President-elect Donald Trump last year.

The Catholic News Agency reported on the pontiff’s annual "state of the world" address, which he gave to members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See on Thursday. In it, Francis pointed to "fake news" as the root of the division and distrust in society that culminated in Trump almost being killed on two separate occasions in 2024. 

"This phenomenon generates false images of reality, a climate of suspicion that foments hate, undermines people’s sense of security, and compromises civil coexistence and the stability of entire nations. Tragic examples of this are the attacks on the chairman of the government of the Slovak Republic and the president-elect of the United States of America," he said.

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Trump narrowly avoided being killed at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania last July, when would-be assassin Thomas Crooks fired at him with an AR-15 rifle.  Crooks’ round missed Trump’s skull by less than an inch, though it hit him in the ear. Other rounds entered the crowd behind the then-GOP candidate, wounding two and killing rallygoer Corey Comperatore.

Trump avoided a second assassination attempt just two months later in Florida, as U.S. Secret Service scared off suspect Ryan Routh before he could take a shot at Trump, who was golfing at his course in Palm Beach County. Authorities caught up with and arrested the would-be assassin after he ditched his AK-47 and took off in a vehicle.

As the Pope reminded his audience, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was critically wounded when he was shot by a would-be assassin in May while greeting some of his supporters in his country. Local authorities arrested the suspect.

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During the address, Francis said that these assassination attempts are the result of societies being further polarized by misinformation and media bias. 

"We see increasingly polarized societies marked by a general sense of fear and distrust of others and of the future, which is aggravated by the continuous creation and spread of ‘fake news,'" Francis declared, using the term that Trump made popular at the start of his political career.

The Pope added that fake news "not only distorts facts but also perceptions."

Following the attempts on his life, Trump blamed false rhetoric pushed by the left as what inspired the shootings against him. 

Speaking about the second would-be assassin, Trump told Fox News Digital last September, "He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it. Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out."

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In his speech, Francis – who declared 2025 to be a special "Jubilee" year with the central theme of hope – called for mankind to mend the divisions in society that have led to these assassination attempts.

"My prayerful hope for this new year is that the jubilee may represent for everyone, Christians and non-Christians alike, an opportunity also to rethink the relationships that bind us to one another, as human beings and political communities," he expressed.