Pope Francis criticized President Trump and his administration in a letter to U.S. Catholic bishops about mass deportation in writing that while governments have a right to defend themselves, they should not turn a blind eye to men, women and families who need help. “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 particularly vulnerability and defenselessness.”