LAMPEDUSA, Italy (AFP) — Pope Leo XIV on Saturday visited Italy’s Lampedusa island, a major port of call for migrants risking the perilous crossing from Africa, in a stark message to United States (US) and European Union (EU) leaders.

The Catholic Church’s first US pope, who has clashed with the administration of President Donald Trump over its treatment of migrants, is marking 4 July, the US’ 250th anniversary of independence, on a migration frontline.

Leo’s visit also comes just two weeks after the European Union’s approval of new migrant rules allowing much broader detention powers and the creation of deportation centers outside the bloc.

He began his visit at a cemetery, pausing in prayer in an area where unidentified migrants are buried in numbered graves.

Leo then visited the “Door of Europe,” a monument dedicated to migrants, and spoke briefly with a migrant family.

The Chicago-born pontiff has made the defense of migrants one of the pillars of his papacy, like his predecessor, Francis, praising those who help the needy and decrying mass deportations in the US.

The 70-year-old was expected to use the half-day trip to the Mediterranean island, a frontier between Africa and Europe, to call for safe and legal pathways for immigration.

Leo’s presence “sends a clear message at a time when the global political debate on migration is often framed around borders and deterrence rather than protection and shared responsibility,” Filippo Ungaro, spokesperson for the United Nations’ refugee agency, UNHCR, told Agence France-Presse.