Many animal species migrate, searching for safety and resources. We do not think that birds are violating our airspace when they migrate, nor do we think that land animals invade us if they cross our national borders, nor do we arrest and deport fish and marine mammals that dare enter our territorial waters. We deny many ―most― rights to non-human animals, but we do not question their right to migrate.

However, we refuse to acknowledge that human animals have also migrated throughout history. We conveniently forget that our ancestors migrated, and their ancestors migrated before them. The history of humanity is a story of migration. In fact, in Buddhism, all sentient beings are called “migrators”, because all of us come from different places, times, and circumstances.

Migration is natural and beneficial. What is unnatural and unwholesome is to prevent the free movement of sentient beings across artificial national borders. Just…