Is it legitimate to use the term “concentration camp” when referring to migrant detention camps on our southern border? Some people think it is. This columnist thinks that it politicizes and exploits two words Americans generally associate with the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis.
In June, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), D-New York, referred to the detention camps on our southern border for illegal migrants as concentration camps: “We’ve had 24 people die in these concentration camps that Trump has established on our border.”
AOC also invoked “Never Again,” a poignant slogan generally associated with the Holocaust. “I want to talk to the people that are concerned enough with humanity to say that ‘never again’ means something.”
Some academics, journalists, advocacy groups and politicians have supported AOC’s use of “concentration camps.” Broadly speaking, four reasons have been given:
First, using the term “concentration camp” has some historical basis. For example, it was used to describe prisoner-of-war camps in the Boer War and the internment camps for Japanese-Americans during World War II.
Second, the conditions in the migrant camps on our southern border are in fact deplorable. Here is some of what Time magazine has reported: “Adults and children have been held for days, weeks, or even months in cramped cells, sometimes with no access to soap, toothpaste, or places to wash their hands or shower. Babies have to drink from unwashed bottles and there are not enough diapers. There have been outbreaks of flu, lice chicken pox and scabies. Some reports have emerged of children sleeping on concrete floors; others of adults having to stand for days due to lack of space.”
A third reason is that using “concentration camps” has shock value in attracting public attention. Eric Levitz, writing in New York Magazine, said, “Even if her analogy weren’t defensible on the merits, it would be laudable in its proximate effect.” Until AOC’s statement, Levitz continued, “our government’s ‘zero-tolerance’ policy toward asylum seekers barely registered at the periphery of the media’s gaze …”
Some believe that there is a fourth reason: What we are seeing today in the migrant camps is but a harbinger of worse things to come.
It is possible that AOC herself isn’t particularity concerned about the words she uses. This is what she said on Twitter: “If that makes you uncomfortable, fight the camps – not the nomenclature.”
My view is quite different.
Since the end of WWII the immediate association Americans have made with “concentration camp” is Dachau and worse. The migrant camps on our southern border don’t come close to that unspeakable tragedy. The migrants in American-run camps came to our country of their own will (often illegally). They are not interned because of their ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or political views. They are not enslaved, beaten or starved.
Migrants have come in huge numbers, which is a major cause of the deplorable conditions many migrants experience. It would be an overwhelming task to care for 100,000 people entering our country every month under the best of circumstances.
Not that long ago, American citizens endured similar condition during Hurricane Katrina. There were 1,883 fatalities. Thousand fled to the Superdome, where conditions were unsanitary and unsafe. Afterward, thousands lived in Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers under difficult conditions.
Even with the awful conditions experienced by the American hurricane refugees, would you use the term “concentration camp?”
How about the children being separated from their mothers? It is heart-rending, to be sure, but it also happens with some frequency to American children. According to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, about 1.7 million American children have at least one incarcerated parent. The association’s report, Safeguarding Children of Arrested Parents, found that “70 percent of children who are present at a parent’s arrest watch that parent being handcuffed. Nearly 30 percent are confronted with drawn weapons …” That situation is upsetting to anyone aware of it, but would it equate to a concentration camp?
The use of “concentration camp” by AOC reflects either insensitivity to modern history or an irresponsible disregard for the words she uses. She links migrant internment with slave labor and genocide. Given the unspeakable horror the two words “concentration camp” have evoked for over 70 years, they shouldn’t be used loosely or expropriated for someone’s political agenda.
Richard Fein writes about national and international issues. He has an independent and sometimes controversial perspective. He holds master’s degrees in political science and economics. Nine of Richard’s books on employment topics have been published.