As I said yesterday, there is a new one every day about Immigration and Customs Enforcement treating people like stucke. Stucke is the word the executors of the Nazi Final Solution used for their victims; it means "piece" or maybe "chunk." I am not going to make a daily habit of proving what I said, but here, thanks to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, is today's example.
In this case, it is a private contractor running an ICE detention facility. Whenever I think of prisoners having to work for civilians in Georgia, I think of chain gangs. Can't think why. This isn't a chain gang setup yet, just a "slave to shave" proposition. The Obama administration was getting rid of private, for-profit prisons, but the Trump administration is resuscitating them. Like most pubic-private partnerships, the private gets the profit and the public gets the shaft. The pressure is always on, of course, to keep detaining people so the privates can get their profits.
I may return to this subject from time to time because it's important that we not forget that we have something like ICE running wild across the land. It's especially important when our professional, i.e., real, federal law enforcement people are under assault from the White House and its echo chambers.
Tom is absolutely right. The treatment of immigrants, whether asylum seekers, refugees, dreamers, or simply poor people entering illegally by this administration is seriously unjust. It's hard to see how there could be any thoughtful Christian who is not outspoken and actively engaged in opposing the present policies. I grant that we all have constraints that circumscribe what we can do in this matter. But apart from those who are ill or caring for the ill or handicapped, it's hard to see any excuses for complete inaction that hold water. The default position is to look for opportunities to do more.
ReplyDeleteI'm also grateful to Tom for shining a light on this situation.
ReplyDeleteI really dislike outsourcing government functions to private entities, whether it's detention centers, tollways or parking meters. The last two have been outsourced in my area. Or fighting wars, for that matter.