Current Issues: Abolishing Concentration Camps On Our Soil

Immigration and concentration camps are nothing new to America. Our country is one that was, and still is, being built by the immigrants who came here, and are still coming to our country. America has always been a mixing pot, and while it has always been in the news, why now is it being so heavily discussed? Simply put, it is because of how our country is now treating the immigrants who not only are coming here currently, but the ones who have already been living here for years. Unfortunately, for many migrants in America, a life revolving around the fear of losing what you have worked so hard to achieve all in the blink of an eye is a huge reality. In an article written by The New York Times called “Abolishing Immigration Prisons,” they talk about how common it actually is for the prison corporations and politicians to hold immigrants in facilities “surrounded by barbed wire,” due to how lucrative it can be for them. The people being held in these facilities are humans with families, needs, and rights. It is not just new immigrants coming into this country, it is also people who have been on this land for years, decades, like Kamyar Samimi who had held a green card for 40 years. Samimi died thirteen days after ICE agents took him into custody. Samimi was not given the medicine or the life saving care he deserved, being neglected by nurses and the facility’s doctor. When this man was too weak to care for himself, vomitting, and urinating on himself, the guards finally called for emergency services.

Unfortunately, Kamyar Samimi had been mistreated and neglected for too long and did not make it into the ambulance. This is a reality for many other immigrants, men, women, and children, being wrongfully detained in these facilities. Many people believe that the term “concentration camp” is too harsh. In an article written by ProPublica entitled “A Border Patrol Agent Reveals What It’s Really Like to Guard Migrant Children,” an anonymous agent says that he “didn’t embrace the term concentration camp, but he didn’t dispute it either. ” While the term concentration camp is a strong one, it grabs the attention of people who otherwise may not have listened. This anonymous agent admits that even though he does not agree with the term completely, in some situations it may be a fitting one. In the facility he guards, children are held in cages, some only the age of his own 2-year-old son. These children were “lethargic because they hadn’t been given enough to eat” and “7- and 8-year-olds pacing in circles and sobbing inconsolably because they’d been separated from their parents; a teenage mother who’d swaddled her baby in a filthy sweatshirt that she’d borrowed from another detainee because she’d been forced to throw away the clothes she brought. ” No matter what you call them, they are inhumane and that is something many people on both sides of the debate can agree on. Why is this behavior and treatment of our fellow humans so widely accepted by many? Simply put, it is because they are afraid of what they do not know. An immigrant, to many people, is someone or something unfamiliar, they are not part of their normal. This leads to another, and more important question, how can we fix this? We begin by normalizing the idea of America being a mixing pot. It is a land for many, not just the majority that lives here now. It is a land meant for many different cultures, ethnicities, languages, food, people, and everything in between. To begin fixing our current problems, we start at home, teaching those around about those cultures and differences, and how beautiful they can and do make our country.

This is how we can make our country a great one. Embracing the differences between us, teaching each other, loving each other, and helping one another. The people being detained in these facilities are just that, people; they are no different than friends and family that we love ourselves. They are deserving of love, compassion, rights, and freedom. To continue on how to help immigrants, how can we personally help an immigrant that is in one of the detention or concentration camps? That question is answered in an article published by the Chicago Tribune entitled “How You Can Help an Immigrant In One of Trump’s Border Camps. ” Here they talk about how it does not help to donate things, as the government cannot accept them. To start helping, you have to get political; emails, phone calls, letters, tweets, anything that can bring attention from politicians to help the children, families, and people in these facilities that are trying to survive in the horrible conditions. Secondly, you can donate to organizations that focus on helping children to be reconnected with their families due to having been separated and forced to be all alone in these camps. While we as a country may never agree on the rules regarding our border, something we should all be able to agree on is how we treat fellow humans on this planet. In conclusion, immigation is something that will always exist. Our country is a land that was immigrated to by people from somewhere else, and that is how most people got to where they are today.

People will always try to immigrate here, and that should never be a bad thing; in fact, it shows how great our country is, and we should be trying to keep it that way. No matter the name you call them by, be it concentration camps, immigration prisons, or just immigrant facilities, they are unacceptable. The conditions that these human beings are being held in, with lack of food, hydration, clothing, bedding, medical care, and more should never be something that is considered acceptable on U. S soil. Change starts at home, and it starts with each and every one of us, doing everything we can to advocate for the voiceless, and help in the small ways that we have available to us. All in hopes that it causes an avalanche of change that comes our country’s way and saves us all.

Works

CitedGarcía, César Cuauhtémoc. “Abolish Immigration Prisons. ” The New York Times, The New York Times, 2 Dec. 2019, www. nytimes. com/2019/12/02/opinion/immigration-detention-prison. html. Huppke, Rex. “Column: How You Can Help Migrant Children in Trump's Border Camps: (First - Don't Send Stuff). ” Chicagotribune. com, Chicago Tribune, 26 June 2019, www. chicagotribune. com/columns/rex-huppke/ct-trump-border-camps-migrant-children-how-to-help-huppke-20190626-xl4ucpnqbnaolpf63k34dekoti-story. html. Thompson, Ginger. “A Border Patrol Agent Reveals What It's Really Like to Guard Migrant Children. ” ProPublica, 21 Aug. 2019, www. propublica. org/article/a-border-patrol-agent-reveals-what-its-really-like-to-guard-migrant-children.