January 27, 2025
Three stories in the headlines today are linked by more than just their timing. One was the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. A group of deportees described a brutal transfer flight from the USA to Brazil aboard an ICE transport plane. And President Trump proposed cleaning out Gaza and removal, despite their refusal to leave, of the Palestinians who live there. Just the other day in Newark, an ICE raid swept up an American citizen, a military veteran, who apparently looked “illegal” to the agents.
Credit: Vidcap, Al Jazeera English
While it’s hyperbolic to compare anything to the Holocaust, it’s just basic history to compare different periods for similarities and distinctions. The apt comparison, if one is to invoke the Third Reich, isn’t the 1940s when a World War raged and Nazi genocide was mass produced in a vast and well organized system of death camps. Rather, it’s the early days of consolidating Nazi power: the rounding up of the political opposition, the passage of emergency measures, the bullying of the free press, and the activation of violent, regime supporting vigilante gangs. The incendiary speeches demonizing some people as dangerous, dirty, or subhuman and unworthy of even minimal respect because they’re poisoning the nation’s blood and practicing bizarre rituals such as baking bread with blood taken from infants or eating the pets.
From Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not far away. MJH
In that light, the quota driven immigrant roundups and the callous indifference to their humanity, the wholesale firings of thousands of potentially ‘disloyal’ government employees, and the release from prison of the convicted January 6th insurrectionists all appear very ominous. And while we Americans are said to be a generally forward looking, optimistic and hopeful people, the current split screen looks pretty grim to this American.
Missing from the split screen are once familiar American traits – a sense of fair play and good sportsmanship, equal justice before the law, and an unshakeable conviction that ‘unity is strength’ as expressed in our country’s official motto, ‘E Pluribus Unum.‘ Out of the original 13 Colonies, we formed 1 Nation. Now we have 50 States and almost 350 Million fellow Americans in that Nation, and the idea that we’re stronger together still holds. Casting a sizeable segment of our fellows as ‘enemies’ because they hold different political views, or write things we don’t like in the Press, or maybe they just look or speak differently, is a recipe for disaster.
History proves it. On the other hand, hanging together as one has served us well for nearly two and a half Centuries. We’re in an historic moment when we can stick with what’s always worked or we can throw it all away and go with what has never worked. Our choice, fellow Americans.
“We must be listened to: above and beyond our personal experience, we have collectively witnessed a fundamental unexpected event, fundamental precisely because unexpected, not foreseen by anyone. It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say. It can happen, and it can happen everywhere.” ~
Today, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Representative Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), along with House co-leads, Reps. Sylvia Garcia, Suzanne Bonamici, Chuy Garcia, Pramila Jayapal, Don Beyer, and Delia C. Ramierz, announced their intent to reintroduce the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act, for the 119th Congress. This legislation would codify protections for immigrant communities at sensitive locations where they are at their most vulnerable including health care facilities like hospitals, schools, courthouses, and places of worship.
“The Trump Administration has made clear its intentions of targeting immigrant communities, especially with his recent announcement to revoke the policy that barred immigration arrests and enforcement near sensitive locations. Our bicameral bill, the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act, is needed more today than ever as immigrant communities face threats of indiscriminate raids and other challenges,” said Espaillat. “The Trump Administration is playing political games with innocent lives amid a culture of fear and scare tactics that prevent immigrants from leaving their homes to seek essential government services, receive life-saving medical care, attend places of worship, and more. Our bill would codify commonsense protections to ensure immigrant communities are not targeted at these sensitive locations.”
“The Trump Administration’s new edict revoking protections for immigrants at churches, hospitals, court houses, and other sensitive locations is a direct threat to public safety. When people are too frightened to seek medical care or report a crime, the entire community suffers,” said Sen. Blumenthal. “Why are we focusing our limited resources on parishioners and the parents of sick children?”
~News Release from U.S. Representative Adriano Espaillat
Woody Guthrie: Deportee/Plane Wreck at Los Gatos
