Want to talk about law and order at the border? Let’s do it.

Families escaping violence and war in their home countries have a right to apply for asylum at the U.S. border — that’s a law.

It is a law federal officials have been caught undermining.

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EXPLAINER: Must immigrant parents, children be separated at the border?

When families follow proper procedure, they’re supposed to be kept together. Jose Demar Fuentes approached a border checkpoint in California with his 1-year-old son, Mateo, as reported by PBS. Despite having proper identification for them both, the 30-year-old father was split from his son, whom immigration officials moved to a Texas facility more than 1,500 miles away.

Some Customs and Border Protection agents have reportedly avoided the whole question by illegally turning away families asking for asylum.

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Meanwhile, the U.S. checkpoints themselves present a humanitarian crisis. They’re understaffed and overwhelmed, leaving parents with children standing in the blistering heat and sleeping on cardboard for days, and even weeks, to present themselves to U.S. inspectors.

The U.S. government could better guarantee law and order by streamlining this process. President Obama’s Central American Minors refugee program allowed people to apply for asylum while remaining in their own countries. Trump ordered it to be shuttered.

There goes the law.

The United States could also work with other nations to stabilize the ongoing criminal chaos and civil breakdown in Central America. Trump announced Tuesday he wants to cut off foreign aid to those nations.

There goes the order.

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So instead these refugees flee for their safety. Tens of thousands have gone to Costa Rica. Mexico, too, has accepted asylum applications by the thousands. But many try to aim further north, often hoping to meet with friends and family. They make their way to designated checkpoints at the U.S. border — following routes routinely infested by cartel goons demanding bribes to pass.

Not surprisingly, some opt for an alternative route: entering illegally across the river.

For this crime of desperation, parents are branded criminals. In the world of zero-tolerance law and order, criminals should go to jail, and thousands of their children are ripped — sometimes, forcibly — from their arms.

These immigrant “criminals,” have committed only a misdemeanor. For consistency’s sake, we can put everybody with a lead foot in the “criminal” camp as well. In the state of Texas, every moving violation — except for speeding, open container and texting while driving — can result in an arrest.

Imagine how many deadly accidents we could prevent on our freeways if law enforcement extended a zero-tolerance policy to Houston’s daily commute. Imagine how overwhelmed our criminal justice system would be with reckless drivers. Imagine the outrage as parents spend time behind bars, unable to see or touch their children, for these misdemeanor offenses.

Houstonians wouldn’t put up with it.

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Yet we tolerate such an abusive policy for immigrants whose violation is born of an urgent desire far beyond that of rushing through traffic: Saving the lives of their children.

In our streets, in criminal courts and in the world of drugs, our justice system is wisely moving away from a policy of zero tolerance. Harris County has become home to a vast spectrum of experimental policies, like pre-trial adjudication, STAR drug courts and courts for veterans. Talk to the judges and prosecutors, and they’ll tell you that individualized discretion and treatment gets better results than zero tolerance.

When he was a district court judge in Harris County, Ryan Patrick proudly touted his support for pre-trial services that could keep people out from behind bars. It is the sort of judicial discretion his predecessor as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas routinely enforced. Now Patrick is responsible for following a zero-tolerance policy that seems anathema to everything he once practiced — everything Harris County knows can work.

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Ah, but when it comes to refugees from Central America, we have a way of forgetting what works. We have a way of forgetting humanity, both theirs and ours.

The president knows the law allows him to end this humanitarian crisis as quickly as he created it. He can halt the separation of families. He can craft creative solutions to help refugees navigate our legal code. He can join with other leaders to bring stability to Central America.

Instead he chooses to follow a policy of splitting parents and children, hoping their cries will serve as a warning to others who mistook the Statue of Liberty as anything but a mere copper artifact. The president is willing to hurt those in our care — and last we checked, that’s neither lawful nor orderly. Whether it’s American, however, is a question only the people can answer, either with our action or with our silence.