I understand it a little more; when people say we need to go back. They are watching the movie Jaws backwards and regaling it as a heartwarming story about a shark who gives arms and legs to people who need them. We can go back to the beginning of Jaws all we want, but there is still a menace in waters and time does not go backwards; but maybe we do.
I was born in the 50’s and have experienced 13 presidencies that started with President Dwight Eisenhower. As an African American, this is not the worse. Through the arc of time, we thought it would be better. Short memories, book bans and restrictions on what can be taught have obfuscated history into some kind of heartwarming tale.
In 1954, President Eisenhower launched “Operation Wetback“ which used military-style tactics to remove Mexican immigrants, some of them American citizens, from the United States. Though millions of Mexicans had legally entered the country through joint immigration programs in the first half of the 20th century, with some being naturalized citizens. Operation Wetback was designed to send them to Mexico. Well Yankee my doodle, does this not sound familiar?
Trump’s campaign promise was mass deportations with government resources on a scale never seen before prioritizing criminals. Yes, the effective sales pitch was to get the criminals out, the reality has been very different, we’d call that irony. Now, we have a concentration camp, hastily constructed in Florida, marketed as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
A concentration camp is a facility where large numbers of people, often those deemed political enemies or members of specific groups like ethnic or religious minorities, are confined against their will, typically without legal charges or proper trials. These camps often operate under harsh conditions and disregard for legal norms.
Take an old idea, give it a nice public relations spin, sell hats and t shirts. Minimize the coverage of the flooding problems and the onset of hurricane season when you have basically created, gasp, a trailer park which notoriously suffer the most damage in 150 mph winds. This is recreational cruelty.
How will detainees end up in Florida’s concentration camp? Immigration and Customs Enforcement – ICE. ICE with their heads and faces covered and no id required. On a side note, there is a rise of cases of ICE impersonators abductions. Back to ICE, there is report after report of American citizens or visitors from other countries who are wrongfully taken into custody and detained. No surprise, The current administration acknowledged this would happen, it’s the cost to get people out. This is nothing new.
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 and the more stringent Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 legally mandated the return of escaped slaves and empowered slave catchers to operate even in free states. Ah yes, the slave catchers. First, let’s acknowledge the inhumanity of “ownership” of people as property for 250 years. Property, something to be returned. Since the slave catchers, could operate in “free states, it was not uncommon for them, the slave catchers, to capture freemen of color and sell them into enslavement. The true story of 12 Years a Slave chronicles Solomon Northup, a freemen, captured and sold into enslavement.
Farmers and hospitality now have no workers and local economies are impacted. A few weeks ago, Trump said the raids would stop in those areas, then, raids to restart a week later. The latest solution proposed this week is “Farmer Responsibility.”
What has the president said?
During his trip to the Everglades, Mr. Trump described in vague terms a system that would allow some undocumented workers on farms or in the hospitality business to stay in the United States.
“Without those people, you’re not going to be able to run your farm.”
“The farmers can be responsible for some of the people,” Mr. Trump said. “They’re not going to have citizenship, but they’ll be working. They’ll be paying taxes. We need to get our farmers the people they need.”
In the Fox News interview, Mr. Trump said his administration was “developing some kind of temporary pass where people pay taxes, where the farmer can have a little control as opposed to you walk in and take everybody away.”
What Has Trump Said About Undocumented Workers at Farms and Hotels?
The employer has the control? You could just expand the H-2A Visa and H-2B Visa programs. Have the employer “responsible?” In the video of the interview, Trump states the employer needs the workers. What happened to “they” are taking your jobs? What happened to enforcement against employers who hire undocumented workers? Tom Homan, Border Czar, in his plan when he took the post said:
The Biden administration has refused to enforce the federal law barring employers from hiring illegal aliens; the Justice Department needs to embark on a vigorous, very public, enforcement program against employers. Not only will that punish employers for breaking the law and depriving Americans of jobs, but the publicity from that should help deter many other employers from engaging in such behavior, drying up the ability of illegal aliens to work and earn a living.
What Everyone Is Missing in the Argument Over Mass Deportation
But now, instead of enforcing that law and penalizing the employers, the proposal by Trump is to give the employer control? Wasn’t the idea that those jobs taken by undocumented workers would now be filled with American citizens? Or was that another part of concepts of a plan?
This makes me physically ill. The negativity, the derogatory descriptions and the enormity of multiple executive orders. We’re in the grip of a powerful cult of personality that in the future will be an incredible case study. I’ve said several times over the last couple of weeks, this is the breakdown before the break through. This week, consider what that break thru looks like and feels like. I’m going off to mediate.
Balancing on Unstable Surfaces 