“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”
— Elie Wiesel, author and Auschwitz survivor, 1928-2016.
Concentration Camp: “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.”
— American Heritage Dictionary
On Jan. 27, the world will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by Soviet troops. “Auschwitz concentration camp was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland.” (Wikipedia)
Historically, the Nazis didn’t invent concentration camps. In 1899, the Boer War broke out between the Boer republic of South Africa and the British empire, fighting over who would control South Africa’s resources.
During the fighting, the British attacked Boer civilians, leaving people homeless and starving. To control these non-combatants, the British built concentration camps.
More than 100,000 civilians, mostly women and children, were forced into these camps. Over 26,000 died, mostly from starvation and disease. Later, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union developed the concept of concentration camps to a highly efficient level.
The U.S. hasn’t been blameless in this endeavor. After the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066. This authorized the government to intern people who were considered a threat to national security. Roosevelt justified this by invoking the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798.
Over 120,000 Japanese-Americans were placed in these camps; two-thirds of them were American citizens. There were no indictments, no due process and no hearings. These actions totally violated the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The camps were finally closed in 1945, but they remain a stain on our country.
Now newly inaugurated President Donald Trump wants to repeat this shameful history. Trump wants to deport over 10 million undocumented immigrants. To accomplish this, he plans to build large internment camps to hold these people until they are deported.
Trump intends to use the military to facilitate these roundups. He’s using the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 as justification, claiming the U.S. is under invasion by immigrants.
He doesn’t care that millions of undocumented immigrants have lived here for decades, working, raising families and paying taxes. Many of these immigrants have American spouses; their children are American citizens. None of that matters.
Trump also ignores the fact that millions of these undocumented immigrants play a crucial role in our economy. Here in Nevada, 9 percent of our workforce is undocumented. These workers are in agriculture, mining, construction, hospitality and other industries that are already hard to fill.
“If Nevada lost all of its workers in the country illegally, Labor Department figures suggest the direct job losses would be roughly as large as those from the 2008 financial crisis, which stalled tourism, triggered a wave of housing market foreclosures and cost the state about 9.3 percent of its jobs during the subsequent Great Recession.” (AP, Oct. 21)
The economic losses don’t even include the mental and emotional toll these deportations would inflict on families and communities. Trump’s incoming border czar Tom Homan said, “The government will not hesitate to deport parents who are in the country illegally, even if they have young U.S.-born children.”
“As acting director of ICE during Trump’s first term, Homan drove the ‘zero tolerance’ policy that separated more than 4,000 children from their parents soon after they crossed the border into the United States.” (Washington Post, Dec. 26)
There are ways to prevent this wholesale destruction of families, communities and our economy. Improving the H-2A visa program by increasing the number of workers allowed and making it a year-round program is a start. American farmers and ranchers, including in Nevada, need these workers. Surely there’s a solution that is legal, practical and humane.
We cannot allow millions of people to be detained in these internment camps. Martin Niemöller, a German Lutheran pastor who opposed the Nazis, said it best.
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.”
Jeanette Strong, whose column appears every other week, is a Nevada Press Foundation award-winning columnist. She may be reached at news@lahontanvalleynews.com.