Waves of desperate families are trying to cross the border almost hourly and entering an overtaxed government detention system.

“We are all humans and we deserve a chance to thrive. We’re not asking for things to be given to us. We’re asking for an opportunity to work hard."

U.S. and Mexican bishops urged “the administration to reverse this policy, which needlessly increases the suffering of the most vulnerable and violates international protocols.”

Sister Markham's experience, and her heart, changed when she and her convent took in a young Romanian couple in the '90s that was fleeing persecution in their homeland.

An organization based in Silver Spring, Md., known as CLINIC--Catholic Legal Immigration Network--has called the Department of Homeland Security's decision not to include more recent arrivals from war-torn South Sudan (apart from those already here) as part of the Temporary Protected Status designation as "morally reprehensible."

“The historical and practical importance of this ruling cannot be overstated,” according to the deputy director of the A.C.L.U.’s Immigrants’ Rights Project.