To the Editor,
Reports on “Trump’s Internment” buildings are disgraceful. Little kids as young as two years old with soiled clothes, no baths and no brushing teeth – the stench is unbelievable. Irrespective of how you consider it, the facilities have been stretched thin. Many are operating well past their capacities and reports of grim and dangerous conditions have roiled an already tense debate.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, ignited a furor and took criticism from some members in her own party this past week when she referred to migrant detention centers as concentration camps.
In March 30, 2015 Adam Kirsch wrote in The New Yorker about the Nazi Concentration Camps; “the impulse to separate some groups of people from the category of the human is, however, a universal one. The enemies we kill in war, the convicted prisoners we lock up for life, even the distant workers who manufacture our clothes and toys—how could any society function if the full humanity of all these were taken into account? In a decent society, there are laws to resist such dehumanization, and institutional and moral forces to protest it. When guards at Rikers Island beat a prisoner to death, or when workers in China making iPhones begin to commit suicide out of despair, we regard these as intolerable evils that must be cured. It is when a society decides that some people deserve to be treated this way—that it is not just inevitable but right to deprive whole categories of people of their humanity—that a crime on the scale of the KL system, becomes a possibility. It is a crime that has been repeated too many times, in too many places, for us to dismiss it with the simple promise of never again.”
David Perry Pacific Stranded wrote; “Is it fair to use the phrase “concentration camp” to describe the Trump administration’s string of prison camps, detention facilities, and other installations meant to incarcerate immigrants in highly concentrated numbers? That question has been a subject of national debate since at least the summer of 2018. Thanks to President Donald Trump’s new plan this week to expand the prison camp system, including the repurposing of a former Japanese internment site, the debate over semantics has arisen once more.”
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday that the conditions of immigrant detention centers in his state are the “worst” he’s ever seen them, and he called on Congress to pass humanitarian aid to “take care of these children.” According to the New Yorker, children in facilities have been suffering from flu and lice outbreaks, sleeping on concrete floors and left virtually uncared for by staff. Four toddlers were hospitalized after lawyers discovered them in medically dire states at a U.S. Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas. The comments that Rep. Liz Cheney made are typical with her contemporaries, blind eye. Senator Mitch McConnell “blames the Democrats doing nothing about the humanitarian crisis on the border.” Donald Trump made immigration the centerpiece of his campaign, offering no details on a policy. First, Trump banned nationals of eight countries, reduced refugee admissions, and cancelled DACA. The Trump administration is moving to end aid programs for three Central American countries – El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Historically, the U.S has viewed foreign aid programs to Central America as a vital component of stabilizing the countries, potentially halting the flow of immigrants seeking to migrate to the U.S. Trump’s philosophy on stopping aid to countries has boomeranged. As we have learned Trump’s management style is a disaster. He does not understand that assisting someone or a country will enable it become more productive.
Let’s not forget what concentration camps were like. There is a similarly today? The Rights of the Child of humanitarian obligations are most vulnerable. Legislators must act on this. TODAY!
Don’t let Trump distract us by his interaction with a foreign country.
Norman Halls
