In a startling exchange in a committee hearing earlier this month, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) raised concerns to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson regarding the massive increase in illegal immigration, particularly of minors. These men, women, and children who are dying in droves in attempts to get across the border should prick the heart of any decent person.

Since the Obama Administration increased their amnesty-like programs – which increased incentives for illegal immigration – the number of border crossers has jumped dramatically. But the most troubling increase has been among minors. These South American children are being handed over to cartels and gangs who specialize in penetrating our porous border.

The parents of these children hope for better lives for their children, but all too often, they are unaware of the true nature of the smugglers they hire. The virtually impenetrable indifference of the left to care about the border crisis is galling in general, but the shocking unresponsiveness to the deaths, dislocation, and prostitution of children in particular is the most troubling aspect.

In this matter as in others, these politicians and bureaucrats must employ the tools of abstraction and bifurcation to justify their actions. The fetus has the mental buffer of the womb, the crime victim has the separation of neighborhoods, and the children suffering from liberal immigration polices have the isolation of distance.

Yet, should out of sight justify their being out of mind? If the left is too preoccupied with trying to play politics to care for the human tragedy engendered by their policies, they are as guilty of inhumanity as ever man was.

Conservatives have long advocated expanding legal immigration and streamlining the process. All they ask is for the ability to screen applicants for national security and to have control over who enters through our borders. What other time in history has a ruling class of a great nation sneered at the maintenance of its own border without peril ensuing?

If we claim to be a compassionate nation, how can we ignore this situation? If we are to be a good people, how can we tolerate leaders who self-righteously lecture others, while failing to prevent mass suffering? We are a good people; we are a just people, which is why we must not allow the physical separation of most of us from this crisis to tranquilize our moral indignation and motivation for action.