Dear Trump America,

Predictably, we’re seeing your pundits justify the separation of asylum-seeking children from parents at our immigration prisons — oops, I mean, “detention centers” — by calling them “criminals.” It’s the same strategy you used to scare folks about refugees being “terrorists”: the vilification of an ethnic group to create confusion and bolster an anti-immigrant agenda.

The cynical part of me hopes you‘re self-aware — that you strictly view politics and governance as a game and, therefore, don’t really believe what you’re saying. But what if you do? What if, through ignorance or the repetition of lies, you now actually believe these asylum seekers are criminals?

Just in case you do, here’s a reminder: land-arriving asylum seekers are not criminals. Not a single one of them. And I’m 100% certain.

How can I be so sure? How can I know that they’re not entering the United States to join a gang or traffic drugs?

The answer can be summed up in one word: bureaucracy.

Those who claim asylum at a port of entry to the United States are immediately detained. ICE then conducts an initial intake process. The immigrants whose asylum claims appear to have merit get shipped to a detention center to await an initial bond hearing. These bond hearings, however, are backlogged and do not happen for months. Sometimes, asylum seekers languish in detention for years.

Most of these detainees lack access to a lawyer. They don’t have much access to the outside world. They certainly don’t have access to their children. Sometimes, they don’t even have a court date, so they don’t know how long until they may get a chance at an ankle bracelet and permission to set foot on American soil.

Frankly, this is the reaction any criminals or gang members from Central America have to our asylum process:

“Ain’t Nobody Got Time For That!” — The reaction of any sane criminal, after taking one look at the asylum process for land border arrivals.

If you’re still confused as to what I’m saying, try this little exercise: don’t think of these immigrants as human beings desperately fleeing oppression in their homelands. Instead, think of them as guns. As your pundits often say, criminals go around our laws to access guns. Well, coincidentally, the very rare, nefarious, criminal immigrants also go around our laws to immigrate to the United States.

Now, some of you may argue that because these detainees tried to enter the United States without prior permission, they’re immigrating “illegally.” Ergo ipso facto, they are criminals. This line of thought forgets an important detail:

They’re claiming asylum.

Asylum is a legal process.

In other words, these detainees are choosing to follow the law and trying to enter the United States legally. Plus, the mere fact they’ve made it to a detention center means their case has some level of merit.

These asylum seekers are not “gaming the system.” They’re following the system exactly as designed except, now, we forcibly and unexpectedly separate parents from their children for months. Possibly, years.

And while it is true that some asylum seekers will cross the border illegally — that is, cross the border and then try to seek asylum — the law does not distinguish between those who do and those who do not. Per current immigration law, asylum seekers who present themselves at a point of entry and those who cross the border illegally all must be detained until their claims can be verified. Either way, by the Trump administration’s rules, they lose their children.

I get why you don’t want to acknowledge these facts. I really do. To acknowledge that a group of legal immigrants is suffering injustice on a massive scale suggests that Trump and the members of his administration might be monsters. And if you were to concede that Trump might be a monster, you’d have to stop trying to “own the libs” and start acknowledging that “the libs” might be right about something.

And nothing is worse than telling liberals they’re right — not even the separation of innocent asylum seekers from their children.

Sometimes, though, we must acknowledge the most heartbreaking of facts. There is no happy note to end on…except, of course, the potential for positive change. We can only make any of this right by demanding the Trump administration fundamentally reform the asylum process. It’s a fight that many of us are already engaged in, and we can use all the help we can get.

So please, find ways to speak up. Consider calling your Senators and Representative in Congress. Tell everyone you know that you want the separation of parents from children in immigration detention to stop. Explain why you want a better system for handling asylum claims, or why we need more immigration judges. Perhaps, even, consider the possibility of comprehensive immigration reform, so we can put this nightmarish period of American history behind us. And maybe, together, we can make the nation we all love a little bit kinder to immigrants.

Sincerely,

The Remaining 54% of America