When is a deportation policy ‘intrinsically evil’ and when is it not?

Much of the current understanding of this most controversial aspect of the worldwide immigration crisis comes from Vatican II and commentary from popes, including St. John Paul II. But neither John Paul II nor the council elaborated on the meaning of “deportation” in specific documentation. Fr. Thomas Petri, OP, a moral theologian and former president of the Dominican House of Studies, says deportation, as an enforcement of immigration law, “in and of itself can’t be intrinsically evil.” However, Fr. Petri adds that, “Even if there’s disagreement on who should be deported, when the deportation happens, it should happen in a way that doesn’t undermine the dignity of those being deported.”