Opinion of the Court
United States, 524 U. S. 125, 127–128 (1998) (choosing between ordinary meanings of “carry”). Here, the context of these words—the water in which they swim—indicates that Congress used them as terms of art.
Statutory history is an important part of this context. In 1885, Congress enacted a law that would become the template for clause (iv). That law prohibited “knowingly assisting, encouraging or soliciting” immigration under a contract to perform labor. Act of Feb. 26, 1885, ch. 164, §3, 23 Stat. 333 (1885 Act) (emphasis added). Then, as now, “encourage” had a specialized meaning that channeled accomplice liability. See 1 Bouvier, Law Dictionary 30 (“abet” means “[t]o encourage or set another on to commit a crime”); Black’s Law Dictionary 6 (1891) (to “abet” is “[t]o encourage, incite, or set another on to commit a crime”). And the words “assisting” and “soliciting,” which appeared alongside “encouraging” in the 1885 Act, reinforce that Congress gave the word “encouraging” its narrower criminal-law meaning. See Dubin v. United States, 599 U. S. ___, ___ (2023) (slip op., at 12) (a word capable of many meanings is refined by its neighbors, which often “ ‘avoid[s] the giving of unintended breadth to the Acts of Congress’ ”). Unsurprisingly, then, when this Court upheld the 1885 Act against a constitutional challenge, it explained that Congress “has the power to punish any who assist” in introducing noncitizens into the country—without suggesting that the term “encouraging” altered the scope of the prohibition. Lees v. United States, 150 U. S. 476, 480 (1893) (emphasis added).
In the ensuing decades, Congress both added to and subtracted from the “encouraging” prohibition in the 1885 Act. Throughout, it continued to place “encouraging” alongside “assisting” and “soliciting.” See Act of Mar. 3, 1903, §5, 32 Stat. 1214–1215; Act of Feb. 20, 1907, §5, 34 Stat. 900. Then, in 1917, Congress added “induce” to the string of verbs. Act of Feb. 5, 1917, §5, 39 Stat. 879 (1917 Act) (mak-
