As Americans, we need to consider where we are right now, and where, as a nation, we are headed. Sarah Kendzior and others have warned that our values, our social norms, and the processes of our democracy would be eroded and undermined. They have been. We are now a country where our government discusses certain human beings as if they are vermin, as an “infestation.”

It’s become accepted to talk about immigrants, even children, as less than human. Supporters of these policies offer an excuse that detainees have broken the law, as if an alleged crime – a misdemeanor even – strips a person of their humanity.

Conservative media are actively working to undermine any empathy or sympathy in the American people by spreading the lie that people fleeing violence for asylum in the United States are actors working for liberals.


All of these things taken together have the result that a large minority of Americans support imprisoning innocent people in internment camps. (A person accused of a misdemeanor, convicted of nothing is an innocent person who should not be jailed.) There has been opposition, but so far, it’s comparatively mild. Government business proceeds as usual and the Republican party has taken no action but moved along with the continued dismantling of the healthcare system.

Once the news cycle moves onto something else, this crime against humanity continues and escalates. We’ve seen already that the detainees are not treated humanely. In fact they’re actively abused.

“Don’t you think you’re overreacting? It’s not like these are Nazi death camps.”

I’m glad you asked. No. I don’t think I’m overreacting. Let me tell you how this starts. First, there is no media allowed in most of these camps. When they are allowed, it’s only with weeks of advance notice and preparation. Even United States Senators are being blocked from oversight of what transpires there.

There won’t be anything as official as an act of Congress authorizing the extermination of detainees. Detainees will start to die, from heat stroke, from poor medical care, from disease and infection that spread throughout the camps. They will be killed while attempting to escape. They will die in preventable accidents. There won’t be a media uproar. The media isn’t there. They don’t need gas chambers. They have the Texas heat.

The American people won’t know about it. The media can’t even tell us exactly how many people are detained. We don’t know where all of these people are detained.
Our government doesn’t even know how to reunite the families that they’ve already broken apart.

When detainees start to die, you won’t know about it until they numbers are too great to escape notice. At that point it will feel like it’s already too late and many who might have stood in opposition will be demoralized or afraid. Nothing I’ve described here compares to the unspeakable evil of the Holocaust. But “not as bad as the Holocaust” is not something to be proud of. What our government has already done is a crime against humanity. Once detainees start to die, it will be a horror.

The president and his executive order have not resolved this situation. Do not be fooled. The time to act is now. We can still stop this before it escalates. Take action now. Protest. Call. Write. Compel your elected officials to resist this. Donate money. You can’t do everything, but you can do SOMETHING. Do what you can.