Concentrate on the CAMPS!

The Twitterverse was shocked and appalled and even aghast at the comments by Freshman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (better known as @AOC) this past week.  She dared to called a "place where large numbers of people (such as prisoners of war, political prisoners, refugees, or the members of an ethnic or religious minority) are detained or confined under armed guard" a concentration camp. Egads. How can someone be so careless as to use the correct terminology? 

Thankfully, America's Conservative voices are focusing on the very real travesty of what we call these concentration camps and ignore the inhumane conditions that we are subjecting the children that we have ripped from their parents.  That 6-year old migrant kid must be so happy that the GOP doesn't considerate a concentration camp. He'll be proud that they are focusing their righteous anger on a Freshman Congresswoman, who happens to be definitionally right according to, you know, experts.  

Surwe she never mentioned Nazi concentration camps, but they certainly had the most famous camps. Except, the United States had concentration camps during World War II for Japanese Americans -camps that people living today were forced into, including George Takei, the actor of Star Trek fame. But sure, most Americans only know about the Nazi camps. While the Nazis had more than 60 concentration camps, only about a dozen camps would be the well-known “death camps” like Auschwitz. While Anne Frank did die in a concentration camp, she died from Typhus in the disgusting conditions. 

It’s easier for Republicans to fight about the semantics of Concentration Camps than to defend the horrific policies of this administration. They are keeping children, forcibly orphaned by the US government, held in dog cages to sleep on the floor with no hygiene. Eight year olds are forced to care for sick two year olds. Children are dying in US custody for our neglect. Children are being tortured in US custody, enduring life long effects. One child, now two years old, was taken at from his mother at 4 months old and still has not learned how to walk or talk. He and many others will be permanently scarred by the treatment of this administration. 

And some people are making a profit off of this. These are for-profit concentration camps. Charging over $700 per day, to deny toothbrushes, soap, and beds to children.  And let’s remember that the vast majority off these are the children of parents that fled their home to come to the US to seek asylum. Seeking asylum is a completely legal thing to do. It is not a crime to apply for asylum, and this is how we treat them. But they crossed the border illegally, you say.  Well, most come to ports of entry to turn themselves in so they can ask for asylum. But even if they do cross illegally, that crime is a misdemeanor. A misdemeanor! We treat felons on death row better than childlren that crossed an imaginary line in the desert. 

This humanitarian crisis at the border is entirely the fault of this Republican administration. It is a cruel policy instituted purely for cruelty’s sake. It speaks of the mismanagement inherent in the chaos of Trump’s White House - he recently purged all the top officials at DHS, and another seems of have quit today. Its another manufactured crisis for the political views. These concentration camps will do nothing to actually address immigration. They don’t address crime or drug trafficking. It is nothing but about being cruel.