“Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups,” wrote Francis in a letter to U.S. bishops in February. “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 particular vulnerability and defenselessness.”

Earlier this year, DHS sent a letter to local governments and nonprofits that had received Federal Emergency Management Agency grants for work with migrants, saying they “may be guilty of encouraging or inducing an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States,” and asking them to provide a list of the immigrants they had served and to sign an affidavit they had not violated human smuggling laws.