Pope Francis has said that a fear of migration is “making us crazy.”
The pontiff made the comments as he began a trip to Central America amid President Trump’s standoff over a wall at the border with Mexico.
Francis previously denounced anyone who wants to build a wall to keep out migrants as “not Christian.”
As he made his way to Panama, the Pope was asked by reporters about the proposed border wall, responding: “it’s the fear that makes us crazy.”
Francis, the Roman Catholic Church's first Latin American pope and the son of Italian immigrants to Argentina, has made the plight of migrants and refugees a cornerstone of his papacy.
He is also expected to offer words of encouragement to young people gathered in Panama for World Youth Day, the church's once-every-three-year rally that aims to invigorate the next generation of Catholics in their faith.
Panama Archbishop Jose Domingo Ulloa said Francis's message is likely to resonate with young Central Americans who see their only future free of violence and poverty in migrating to the US - "young people who often fall into the hands of drug traffickers and so many other realities that our young people face".
Francis's trip, the first in a year packed with foreign travel, comes at a critical moment in the papacy as the Catholic hierarchy globally is facing a crisis in credibility for covering up decades of cases of priests molesting young people.
The pope is expected to soon rule on the fate of former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the high-powered US archbishop accused of molesting minors and adults.
And he is hosting church leaders at the Vatican next month to try to chart a way forward for the global church.
Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said there were no plans for Francis to meet with abuse survivors in Panama.
Central America has not yet seen the explosion of sex abuse cases that have shattered trust in the Catholic hierarchy in Chile, the US and other parts of the world.
This is the first papal visit to Panama since St John Paul II was there during a 1983 regional tour.
Pope Francis confirmed to reporters aboard the papal plane that he plans to go to Japan in November.
The pope also said he wants to visit Iraq, but that local church leaders have told him that the security situation is not yet right.
This year, the pontiff has already scheduled trips to the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bulgaria and Macedonia, and a trip to Madagascar is rumoured.
Additional reporting by agencies.
