Due process should be allowed at the border

Lining up is one of the first things you learn in school. We loathe waiting in line — long or short, doesn’t matter. But what do you do when there is no line? We also use the figurative line to determine when decency and morality have been breached. You can’t always know where the line is, but you know when it has been crossed.

When we launched tear gas at migrants while America was out holiday shopping, we crossed that line. The images are hard to look at, but they’re ours now. We can’t undo the pain and fear they must have felt. Toddlers in diapers, without shoes, and mothers who are out of options. Can you imagine the perseverance it must take to walk a thousand miles with children to care for? The people waiting in line to apply for asylum have been through what is unimaginable for most Americans.

Asylum is legal in the U.S. and has been for decades. Due process is a constitutional right that we hold dear, and, like many things in our justice system, asylum also has a process. You may not be granted asylum and you may be sent home, but you have the right to apply. You have the right to get in line and plead your case. Refugees fleeing violence in Central America deserve a chance to be heard; to create a better, safer life for their families. In denying this right, we are denying their humanity.