Less than 80 yards from the American border, Pope Francis was set Wednesday to end his six-day visit to Mexico with a mass that is expected to draw hundreds of thousands, including as many as 200,000 American day-trippers.
The pontiff touched down in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, for the final events, including visits to a local prison and college.
In between his planned visits and the start of mass, the pope is expected to walk the banks of the Rio Grande and pray for the estimated 6,000 migrants who have died crossing the border since 2000.
Concern for immigrants has been a central part of Francis’ papal platform for years, frequently denouncing what he calls the “globalization of indifference” toward migrants.
This position has drawn the ire of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, who has accused the pope of being too political and of being coerced by the Mexican government to take a position on immigration. Trump has famously campaigned on building a wall along the entire US-Mexico border, forcing Mexico to pay for it, and expelling all of the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US.
“I don’t think he understands the danger of the open border that we have with Mexico,” Trump said in an interview with Fox. “I think Mexico got him to do it because they want to keep the border just the way it is. They’re making a fortune, and we’re losing.”
Tuesday, Vatican spokesman the Rev Federico Lombardi called Trump’s comments “very strange”, adding that “the pope always talks about migration problems all around the world, of the duties we have to solve these problems in a humane manner.”
US congressman Henry Cuellar, who hails from the Texas-Mexico border, hoped the pope’s visit would help people view the immigration debate differently.
“I don’t think [the pope’s] thinking about Donald Trump, but I think his words will certainly counter what he says,” he said.
The pope is also expected to touch on the mostly gang and drug-related violence that has plagued many sectors of the country for years during Wednesday’s events. His visit to Cereso prison comes just just days after a massive prison riot at Topo Chico prison in Monterrey killed at least 49.
Ciudad Juarez, which lies just across a narrow stretch of the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas has become radically safer in recent years after a sustained period of historic violence. For three years between 2008 and 2011 the city was considered the deadliest in the world, recording 3,622 murders in 2010. By 2015 the murder rate had plummeted an order of magnitude to 308.
But the murder rate “is still very high”, said businessman Jorge Contreras, who owns a local furniture-making company. “As long as there is demand [for drugs] in the United States, there will always be supply.”
During the 1990s, the Juarez cartel took over the city. With its steady flow of deported Mexicans and corrupt cops, Juarez was the perfect location for a successful smuggling operation.
After escaping prison in 2001, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and his Sinaloa cartel sought to take control of the city, sparking a turf war that claimed around 12,000 lives.
