In her overnight 'Letter from an American', Heather Cox Richardson noted:
Yesterday two right-wing circuit judges signed off on the Trump administration's new mass detention policy: the extraordinary assertion that vast numbers of noncitizens throughout the country can be arrested and held in detention centers without the right to release until they are deported.
She added:
[I]n more than 700 cases, at least 225 judges appointed by all modern presidents—including 23 appointed by Trump—have ruled that the new policy likely violates both the law and the right to due process.
But the administration handpicked a right-wing circuit to rule on the policy, and last night ... Judge Edith Jones and Judge Kyle Duncan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit okayed the Trump administration's new rule denying detained immigrants the right to release on bond. That includes ... “millions of non-citizens who have been here for generations; who have never committed a crime; and who pose neither a risk of flight nor any threat to public safety.”
She noted:
It is likely the plaintiffs will appeal the decision.
I obviously hope that they succeed, but the direction of travel here is clear. Already, the number of people being detained in the USA for deportation has almost doubled, and the number is bound to rise considerably, as will the cost to the US federal government of doing this. Ethnic cleansing does not come cheap.
Heather Cox Richardson went on to discuss the cost of these "federal facilities" and the considerable disquiet that they are causing in the communities that host them. What she did not describe them as is what I think they are, which is concentration camps.
As far as I can see, this term is entirely appropriate. What this decision means is that the Trump administration can arrest anyone it wishes, without charge, and without a right of appeal, with the sentence that they may deliver being deportation from the USA. In the meantime, these people will be held in mass detention facilities.
I do, of course, recognise that at present the worst characteristics of concentration camps of the type that we most commonly associate the term with are not to be found in these detention facilities, at least as yet. However, the fundamental characteristic of mass detention without trial, right of appeal, or facility to object to the sentence, is common to other facilities to which this term has been applied, including those operated by British authorities in Africa during the course of the last century.
So, why suggest the use of the term now? There are three good reasons.
Firstly, I think it is fair to do so.
Secondly, it makes clear what the issue around this activity is.
Thirdly, it concentrates the mind on the repugnance of the assumption of power by a state over people against whom it is prejudiced, which hatred is inherent in the policies that Trump and his lackeys are promoting.
This is a moment for plain speaking. We should describe what we see as we see it. How else can our revulsion be made clear?
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The proposals are clearly unconstitutional and should be turned down on appeal. Also mass incaseration of 11 Million “illegal” people is both physically Impossible in the short term and have damaging economic effects.
Richard, the direction the US has taken is deeply disturbing and I can only hope that the UK doesn’t follow in its footsteps.
My wife is American and she has resigned herself to never returning to her country of birth, so disgusted as she is by the shenanigans going on over there.
If you don’t want immigration, then a country only has to work harder at helping countries that people emigrate from to become fairer, more peaceful and able to look after their own so that people don’t wish to leave often under some form of duress.
The way in which the United Hates of America has undermined the democracy of and actively helped with the exploitation of many other countries and created the need for people to leave makes this policy announcement even worse in my opinion.
America has been pissing in the wind for years on this issue. It is a refusal to take any responsibility for years for their foreign and trade polices of their own making. And this – the country apparently offering ‘global leadership’ since World War II.
Yeah, right.
We need to massively reduce our diplomatic relations with this lot, regardless of the collateral damage, and it needs to happen now.
In addition to the introduction of concentration camps, might the U. S. A. also bcome less democratic/more fascist with and through the politicisation of its legal system and, at least, some law enforcement agencies?
Might the framing of the law and subsequent police actions relating to “Palestine Action” also be examples/indicators of the politicisation of the law and its agents by a current government?
https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/the-jury-were-right-to-acquit-the
Might the plans to drastically reduce jury trials due to backlogs when some 41% of court and tribunal buildings being used for less than half of their available time be another ploy to reduce democratic inputs to our legal set up and so go further in the direction of fascism?
Clearly these detention facilities are not death camps.
But they are, to quote a definition from the American Heritage Dictionary, from the article at Wikipedia, “A camp where persons are confined, usually without hearings and typically under harsh conditions, often as a result of their membership in a group which the government has identified as dangerous or undesirable.”
The people being detained (often seized from the street by masked men and spirited away to an unknown location, very similar to “nacht und nebel”) are classified by the government as “undesirable” although many perhaps most have committed no crimes beyond immigration irregularities (and often not even that). The facilities are designed to be harsh – often in cold places with inadequate heating, or hot places with inadequate cooling. Poor food. Little shelter. No access to legal assistance.
Yes, “A camp where persons are confined, usually without hearings and typically under harsh conditions, often as a result of their membership in a group which the government has identified as dangerous or undesirable.” A concentration camp.
Thanks.
Glad you agree.
This from the same newsletter:
On Tuesday, February 3, more than a thousand people turned out for the Surprise City Council meeting to oppose the establishment of the federal detention center. One of the speakers reminded the council of Ohrdruf, the first Nazi camp liberated by U.S. troops, on April 4, 1945. He said:
“The U.S. Army brought the leading citizens of Ohrdruf to tour the facility, which turned out to be part of the Buchenwald network of concentration camps. A U.S. Army colonel told the German civilians who viewed the scenes without muttering a word that they were to blame. One of the Germans replied that what happened in the camp was ‘done by a few people,’ and ‘you cannot blame us all.’ And the American, who could have been any one of our grandfathers, said: ‘This was done by those that the German people chose to lead them, and all are responsible.’
“The morning after the tour, the mayor of Ohrdruf killed himself. And maybe he did not know the full extent of the outrages that were committed in his community, but he knew enough. And we don’t know exactly how ICE will use this warehouse. But we know enough. I ask you to consider what the mayor of Ohrdruf might have thought before he died. Maybe he felt like a victim. He might have thought, ‘How is this my fault? I had no jurisdiction over this.’ Maybe he would have said, ‘This site was not subject to local zoning, what could I do?’ But I think, when he reflected on the suffering that occurred at this camp, just outside of town, that those words would have sounded hollow even to him. Because in his heart he knew, as we do, that we are all responsible for what happens in our community.”
Thanks
We are more subtle over here, designating protest groups as terrorists, – ruining peoples lives by arresting and remanding people with or without charge, confiscating phones and laptops so they can no longer work or even communicate.
Some more thoughts. If we don’t do at least some of the following, then quite frankly the UK will be complicit in the creation of a fascist regime in the US.
Downgrade diplomatic representation and suspend celebratory state visits while keeping consular functions.
Introduce explicit human-rights conditionality in trade and security cooperation.
Offer refuge and legal routes for those affected, rather than merely protesting.
Build coalitions with Canada, European states, and others so the stance is collective rather than symbolic self-harm.
First, of course, Government and Parliament simply must wake up to what is happening all around them. There is no longer any time or space for business-as-usual and ultimately pointless political manoeuvring. This isn’t just about moral outrage, although that is of course supremely appropriate. It’s also about our real long term national interest. We need leadership.