The first day of school has special meaning for children and youth all around the world. It’s a day that children and youth look forward to arriving. On your first day of school, did you come home to your family at the end of the day?
Arresting Parents on Day One
On August 7, hundreds of young children were getting ready early in the morning for their first day of school. For these children, it was an exciting and happy day. They would meet their teachers, and begin a new year of school, which in itself represents a fresh and new start. Imagine being one of these children on that day. On that day, 680 men and women, many of them parents of the children who were beginning the first day of school, were arrested by ICE Police.
These children’s parents were under arrest. If they did go home, their parents would be no where in sight. The emotional and psychological trauma that these children suffered on this day will lead to severe psychological distress.
Targeting Latino Families
The targeting of Latino families by the Trump administration is tantamount to the targeting that was no different than the Sturmabteilung, a paramilitary storm troop detachment dressed in brown shirts. These were Hitler’s thugs who violently intimidated Germany’s leftists and Jewish population. Hitler used them as security forces at rallies, used violence and threats to purge and assault.
Are the ICE arrests any different than the action of the brownshirts against the perceived enemies of Nazism?
Are Trump’s enemies Latinos?
I wonder.
ICE is an arm of the Trump administration. Since his announcement of his run for the Presidency, Trump has denigrated and dehumanized Mexican immigrants, Mexican Americans, and any other Latino person or group. On the heals of 22 people killed and 24 injured at the El Paso Walmart, this police raid on hundreds of Latino families should convince all of us that Latinos in the US are in danger. The lone gunman in the El Paso mass shooting said that he came to this border town with anti-Hispanic and anti-immigrant hate. He was out to kill as many Hispanics as he could.
This killer is a white nationalist full of far-right conspiracy theories that are promoted by the President of the United States. Trump uses the term “invasion” to describe the activities of the border. There is no invasion. People are seeking asylum in the US, as is their right according the US and International law.
We are at a moment in time when the United States is using tactics that were used in one the most horrifying periods of time in history. The Nazis created death camps, raided cities and towns and transported, usually on trains, thousands of people away from their homes and families. They were notorious for separating families, and instilling fear that would follow them through their lives. Six million were murdered in concentration camps. One-hundred people each day are killed in the United States, usually with the use of guns.
The President of the United States is without any empathy for other human beings. He is especially distainful of non-whites. He espoused the views of white nationalists and white supremists who use conspiracy theories to promote their hatefilled view of America. To them, non-white people should be barred from entering the United States, and those that attend Trump rallies, when asked what to do about immigrants in the US, the refrain was “Shoot Them.” Trump, during this crowd rant, only smiled, doing nothing to stop this.
If we don’t do anything, we are complicit.
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