We treat asylum seekers like criminals in this country. But they are not criminals.

For decades, in fact, the United States has had a legal process in place for asylum seekers. This process is the direct result of tragedies committed during the Holocaust. In 1939, a ship with 900 Jewish asylum seekers onboard arrived at the U.S. but was turned away. The ship was subsequently turned away from several other countries, finally returning to Europe where hundreds of the passengers were later killed in Nazi death camps.

The modern concept of asylum is the result of stories like these.

After the war, the United States and its allies decided they should never again return people to a country where their lives were threatened. This became enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and further supported by the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees.

An asylee is a person who comes to the United States, either lawfully or unlawfully, and then asks for legal protections for harms they have already suffered or ones they reasonably fear in the future. Any individual who is physically present in the US, regardless of how they entered, is eligible to seek asylum relief.

Those now seeking asylum in the United States fear for their lives in their home countries. Let me tell you the story of one such family I have befriended who is seeking asylum in Kansas. They are a family like any other — two parents and two kids. They are here because they want to be safe, work and make a home together.

As I walk with them in their journey through the asylum process, I am overwhelmed by the obstacles presented to them, as well as the criminal manner in which they are treated. They have ankle monitors, weekly home visits from ICE and monthly check-ins in Kansas City (a 150-mile round trip they must make on their own despite not being allowed to drive).

Their passports were confiscated and thus they have no valid identification, which even made getting a library card a struggle for them. They are not eligible for government assistance, are not allowed to work or get a driver’s license. The law obligates them to live only from the help our community gives them.

A better solution would be to allow them to work from day one and pay their own way. We love to tell the American story of people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. Why not allow those who move here the same opportunity?

Immigrants, both documented and undocumented, who reside in the United States, from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, together sent over $17 billion home last year alone and $120 billion in the past decade. This makes good financial sense and is a win-win situation for both the United States and Central America. People earn a living while at the same time sending money home to help improve impoverished communities in their native countries.

We made a commitment to do things differently after the Holocaust. We are in a position to make a heroic choice this time around yet we are choosing not to. Instead, we treat asylum seekers like criminals, needing to be detained and monitored — at enormous expense to the taxpayers.

Let’s learn from our past mistakes and this time be the country the poem the Statue of Liberty says we are — one that welcomes and provides safety for people who are fleeing danger.

Who knows, maybe the next Albert Einstein is knocking on our door?

Ximena Garcia is a retired physician who lives in Topeka.