“Help! My children are at school,” a Venezuelan mother cried in anguish as I.C.E. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents took her into custody when she was leaving her scheduled immigration appointment in San Antonio, Texas. Carmen Herrera’s five daughters and her husband are U.S. citizens. The terrified girls cry each night (news4sanantonio.com/news/local/ several-remain-detained-at-immigration- facilities-following-san-antonioice- arrests).
A Dallas Hispanic family, on the way to El Paso to attend their daughter’s university graduation, was allegedly stopped for “No front license plate” on their car. Granados Rojas and his wife were taken into custody by I.C.E. agents. They had overstayed their tourist visas. Their 16-year-old son now has no parents at home (cbsnews.com/texas/ news/dallas-parents-detained-byice- expired-visas-leave-behind-son/).
These are typical examples of the thousands of regular occurrences, most of whom have no criminal history at all. Of course, we want criminals to face consequences, but it is wrong to violate laws that protect everyone’s civil rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
“I’m sick and tired of hearing about the family separation,” Deportation Czar Homan said at CPAC. “I’m still being sued over that …I don’t give a s***, right? Bottom line is, we enforced the law” (newsweek.com/trumps-icedirector- doesnt-care-aboutfamilies- separated-border).
Here is another, similar account: “Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. Men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared” (Diary of Anne Frank, Wednesday, Jan. 3, 1943).
Anne Frank described what was happening long ago. We see history repeating itself now in front of our eyes.
How did the German people allow the Holocaust? They were decent, intelligent people. Perhaps we can understand better when we realize such a thing had never happened before in their country. Theywereunpreparedforthat and incapable of comprehending it. Their leaders, while not perfect, had always followed their Democratic Republic’s Constitution and accepted the results of their elections. That is, until authoritarian Hitler became Chancellor and rapidly did away with all those things.
Another insight into how it happened is seen in the following quote. Railroad tracks ran right behind a church. An eyewitness stated: We heard stories of what was happening to the Jews, but we tried to distance ourselves from it, because we felt, what could anyone do to stop it?
Each Sunday morning, we would hear the train whistle blowing in the distance, then the wheels coming over the tracks. We became disturbed when we heard cries coming from the train as it passed by. We realized that it was carrying Jews like cattle in the cars!
Week after week the whistle would blow. We dreaded to hear the sounds of those wheels because we knew that we would hear the cries of the Jews en route to a death camp. Their screams tormented us.
We knew the time the train was coming and when we heard the whistle blow we began singing hymns. By the time the train came past our church, we were singing at the top of our voices. If we heard the screams, we sang more loudly and soon we heard them no more.
Years have passed and no one talks about it now, but I still hear that train whistle in my sleep (Andy Andrews, How Do You Kill 11 Million People?, Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, pages 39-40).
Jews in Germany and all the occupied countries were required to wear an armband with a yellow star of David as an identifier. This made it easy for them to be arrested on sight and shipped away. Hitler had suspended due process laws or a need of court proceedings for Jews.
I.C.E. is doing the same thing in America now. The only difference is that instead of yellow stars of David, authorities look first for the color on a person’s skin. The identifier being used is brown or black skin color. I find no record of Whites being detained and deported by I.C.E.
People who cannot immediately prove their citizenship or present legal documentation are taken away without any representation or even being able to notify family members. A simple traffic violation on someone’s record will cause immediate detention and transfer to a distant incarceration facility. This is done without warrants for judicial review.
I must ask this vital question, “How loud are you singing?” History is waiting to judge us, and it most certainly will, without fear or favor.