On Feb. 7, Judges Edith Jones and Kyle Duncan of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, ruled that the federal government can detain immigrants without bond, affirming a policy that denies bond hearings to certain apprehended individuals. The 2-1 decision held that the Immigration and Nationality Act allows for the detention of unadmitted immigrants, regardless of their length of residence in the U.S. I did the math for the detention centers planned for the U.S.: seven centers to hold 5,000-10,000 people each, and 16 “smaller” centers to hold 1,500 apiece, for a grand total of 275,000-310,000 detention slots.
Between 1942 and 1945, the U.S. government constructed 10 camps to detain 125,284 Japanese Americans, two thirds of them U.S. citizens, under FDR’s Executive Order 9066. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan issued an official apology and a $20,000 tax-free redress payment to each surviving detainee. As one leaves Union Station in Washington, D.C. and looks to the right, one can see close by a memorial to that sorry event in our history, featuring bronze Japanese cranes entangled in barbed wire, with the inscription “Here we admit a wrong. Her we affirm our commitment as a nation to equal justice under the law.” (President Ronald W. Reagan upon signing the Civil Liberties Act 1988).
Also on Feb. 7, Dr. Heather Cox Richardson ended her post with a description of Ohrdruf, the first Nazi camp liberated by U.S. troops, on April 4, 1945, where an Army colonel invited local German citizens to view the scene. He told them “This was done by those that the German people chose to lead them, and all are responsible.” Perhaps now it is time for each of us to heed that colonel’s comment, and act according to the dictates of our own consciences.
George Kriebel
Northampton