diff --git a/dash-pipeline/bmv2/stages/tunnel_stage.p4 b/dash-pipeline/bmv2/stages/tunnel_stage.p4
index e1b7bfe9c..b56e1fb71 100644
--- a/dash-pipeline/bmv2/stages/tunnel_stage.p4
+++ b/dash-pipeline/bmv2/stages/tunnel_stage.p4
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ control tunnel_stage(
         @SaiVal[type="sai_object_id_t"] bit<16> dash_tunnel_next_hop_id)
     {
         // dash_tunnel_id in tunnel member must match the metadata
-        assert(meta.dash_tunnel_id == dash_tunnel_id);
+        REQUIRES(meta.dash_tunnel_id == dash_tunnel_id);
 
         meta.dash_tunnel_next_hop_id = dash_tunnel_next_hop_id;
     }