COMMENT: Hi,
Yes, you are correct in both cases but the underlying issue is the ethics (or morality if you believe we are under the thrall of a higher power) of the institutional maltreatment of any human in the name of a political belief system. The US political Right-wing (as opposed to the Conservative right) conflated the term “concentration camp” with the Nazi death camps to serve their own agenda. In reality, a concentration camp is just a place where people are concentrated.
Now, I have no problem with having a tough border policy. With the upcoming socio-political meltdown coupled with the effects of climate change (whether due to extra-historical factors or natural causes, or both) the global refugee crisis is only going to get worse. What I do have a problem with is the disingenuous spin put on the issues by both the Left and the Right in the furtherance of their own short-sighted goals.
Many thanks for your opinions on all these matters. Hopefully one of these years I’ll be able to make it to a WEC.
Best,
James
REPLY: Both extreme sides will take words and spin them to their own advantage. The actual legal distinction was that reference to Nazi concentration camps or the US internment camps for the Japanese, involved their own citizens. The issue here is illegal immigrants who are really pouring into the USA and Europe for free handouts and are really economic migrants. Just try to say you have decided that there are better job opportunities in Germany than in the USA. Sorry to say, but you will not get a free pass to just move. Both sides are using this concentration camp theme out of context.
The question of how these people are being treated is a human rights issue. But that is exasperated by the attempt of the left to instill rights upon these people which then delays their detention. If they were truly seeking refugee status, you apply for that. You do not show up at the border and expect fast track.
I have stated before that employees from overseas flying into the USA for a conference or a meeting has always presented problems. One employee coming in from Germany was asked if they were taking cash back and forth for me to Europe. Another was held up and searched by three people three separate times asking why do they come back and forth a few times a year. When I commented I thought you were concerned about people who did not leave, the angry response what I was trying question how to do their job.
We have to have immigration lawyers on call because of the international problems with these people. The lawyers will tell you NEVER fly into Chicago – it is the worst place to ever land for that office sends people back on the next plane more than any airport in the country. The Department of Homeland Security defines removals as “the compulsory and confirmed movement of an inadmissible or deportable alien out of the United States based on an order of removal.” Returns are defined as “the confirmed movement of an inadmissible or deportable alien out of the United States not based on an order of removal.”
In other words, in 2000, at airports, the number of people who had documentation to get on a plane and were denied entry reached about 1.7 million that year. In 2017, that is down to about 150,000. Obama deported more people than any President. The deportations they call “removals” reached about 425,000 in 2013 which is down to about 300,000 in 2017.
