An awful subject

The subject of this post seems particularly awful, but I have a lingering bit of doubt. So I’ll distinguish between fact and speculation.

First the facts.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is separating immigrant minor children from their parents. This is happening along the Mexico border, so I’m pretty sure we’re talking about brown people. The separation has been happening frequently enough and over a long enough time that the ACLU has taken ICE to court. Twitter user southpaw (who is a lawyer) has a link to a court transcript where the ACLU lawyer is pleading with the court. I haven’t read the transcript, which he warns is tough reading.

Dan Gilmor, another Twitter user notes these are people coming to the border legally. They are asking for asylum.

The nasty guy has called undocumented immigrants “animals.” Other GOP voices have piled on. Melissa McEwan of Shakesville reminds us such comments are dehumanizing and eliminationist – such language is used by authoritarians before they start eliminating people.

I’m less sure of the next parts, though the people stating them may be more sure than I am. All of this revolves around the question of why the separation?

Yonatan Zunger, in a Twitter thread, notes the number of children that have been separated might be as many as 7,000 in 2017. The number separated in 2018 might rise to 20,000, though that will require more facilities to house and process them. The rate might rise to 50,000 a year.

Another piece of the scene: Garance Franke-Ruta links to an ACLU article that ICE plans to start destroying records of immigrant abuse.

PBS Frontline reported that the Department of Health and Human Services “lost” the records of a thousand children. Were they returned to family or sponsors? We don’t have the records to say.

Or, as Frontline suggests, the kids ended up in the hands of human traffickers.

Zunger hints at one other possibility that might be a lot like Germany’s Final Solution.

McEwan reminds us that this is the canary in the coal mine. What happens to undocumented brown people will soon happen to documented brown people and then on to citizen brown people and on to other kinds of citizens the nasty guy doesn’t like.

McEwan’s readers, of course, reacted in horror. Then they address ways we might help. Talk to your Congresscritters. Start supporting immigrant rights groups, such as the Poor People’s Campaign or the International Rescue Campaign (I know very little of either).