Not gratuitous, but a note about the “Nazis did the same confiscating wedding rings before killing Jews” parallels with the Trump border.
That was extermination. It was the last step in a long, planned, policy to exterminate, but initially, it was about deportation.
That was extermination. It was the last step in a long, planned, policy to exterminate, but initially, it was about deportation.
As observers have noticed, especially those working in conflict: genocide is almost impossible without dehumanization first. The climate must be hostile to those about to face rejection and torture. There must be an element of large approval of isolation and rejection.
When Italian elected officials talk about specifically recording an ethnic population, and establishes policies on those naturally born and foreign born, they do so under political legitimacy that this is the will of the people, and a sovereign right.
It’s true that the law, before the establishment of the UNDHR, can - is - an instrument of state power. Don’t look to your attorney general, don’t look to OLC memos. Look at the civil / human rights lawyers. They’re the oppositional force.
Once the government / authority has established second and third classes of residents, it then can proceed to the forced migration, forced rejection of a certain category. It will illustrate its policy as a necessity and a sovereign act.
Understand a state does have sovereign right to control its borders. Within limits. When the race, gender, sexual orientation, or creed of a given population is grounds for retaliation, you can establish patterns. The first is to rob civil rights (access to courts, documentation)
Here’s where it changes. Wedding rings were confiscated because of their value. Under Nüremberg Laws, Jews and other targeted minorities were no longer allowed to own property that wasn’t acquired before 1933. Everything from silverware to housing: taken away.
Labour force was also confiscated in the sense that after the first ghettos were built in Poland, able-bodied individuals were forced into labour, in industries that would contribute to the war effort (could extend to farms, after 1941, because of restriction).
Emigration was forbidden. Freedom of movement was then banned so no one could leave - leaving meaning taking with them goods, property, and force. This is different in the sense this is meant to keep them out, not in, but sent back to hardship.
The US is isolationist and inhuman, because it doesn’t see itself as responsible toward those who isn’t seen as worthy of its shelter, territory, and civil protection. It will in fact very much detain and deport, but not keep in. It’s leaving destruction to other places.
It is returning potential refugees and asylum seekers to conflict areas, which is something that was already taking place under the Obama administration (slammed just as well, legally). Trump is taking it many, many steps forward by ripping family units apart, terrorizing.
The aim, I assume, is deterrence. This is the extreme point of what you may have heard in EU member states - Macron used deterrence, Italy talked about closing itself in, Hungary and Austria about punishment, the UK about hostile environment.
Trump will not bother creating a curtain of legal legitimacy, however thin, because he doesn’t care, and knows he is supported by a part of the population, the other part he assumes will remain passive. That is also a huge component of regime authority: deterring opponents.
So when DHS says, “we will not apologise”, know they’re only defiant because they don’t feel threatened themselves. They’ve managed to carry on the message that the US needed it’s living space. But this is not about keeping in. It’s about keeping out.
It’s also keeping out any other form of what it considers to be foreign interference: human rights organizations, NGOs, agencies, lawyers, observers, reporters, funding for any of those. He sees the border as a symbol of his might. Violence is accepted so long it can be seen.
Genocidal regimes are usually keen on museling the press and silencing opposition as it does not want its actions to be seen by the ordinary citizen. Trump knows this isn’t happening to *his* people *within* his borders, so he’s counting on that. /end
