Pope donates $500k to help migrants trying to reach US

In a move that many have interpreted as a shot across the bow of US President Donald Trump, Pope Francis has donated $500,000 to help Central American migrants stranded in Mexico as they try to reach America.

The aid is specifically intended to assist 75,000 people who arrived in Mexico last year as part of six migrant caravans.

The donation will be taken from the Catholic Church’s Peter’s Pence fund, from church collections around the world. Peter’s Pence said in a statement that aid to migrants by governments and private individuals has dropped as global media coverage of the crisis decreased.

“All these people were stranded, unable to enter the United States, without a home or livelihood,” Peter’s Pence said. “The Catholic Church hosts thousands of them in hotels within the dioceses or religious congregations, providing basic necessities, from housing to clothing.”

The US has heaped pressure on Mexico to stop the flow of migrants from Central America moving towards the US border. Last month, Trump cut all aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, accusing the Central American countries of not doing “a thing for us.”

Many have interpreted the Pope’s donation as a rebuke of Trump’s policies towards migrants and some are even saying that the US president is being “trolled” by the pontiff.