When Germany invaded Poland, my grandfather’s cousins knew they were in great danger and had to flee. But when they tried to cross the border into what in 1939 was the Russian-occupied section of Poland, they found that the border was closed. They were turned back at Sanok, the border town on the San River between, then German- and Russian-occupied regions of Poland. So they just returned to their village in Galicia — what else could they do? This sealed their fate. In July of 1943, they were all caught up in a mass deportation and shipped to the extermination camp at Belzec, where they were gassed and cremated.

Obviously, these tragic examples are not what is happening here today. But these are the kinds of atrocities to which the dehumanization of mass, indiscriminate deportation can naturally lead…

Today, our borders remain largely closed for those who are in greatest danger and must flee persecution or poverty. And now we have gone further and cut off most of our foreign aid — aid that would have reduced the need for hungry people to migrate to find a place where they could protect and provide for their family….

This is a pro-life issue. And it will remain a pro-life issue so long as millions of people continue to live lives trapped in desperate circumstances, where countries with means refuse to help.

The United States is not Germany in the 1930s. But it is sobering to see similar patterns reemerging from that fateful decade. We have reason to worry about the direction our society has taken in recent years. And we have reason to work to shore up our democracy before it is too late.