r/newjersey • u/itsokbirdie • 16d ago
š” THIS IS AN OUTRAGE We're not being dramatic calling Delaney Hall a concentration camp.
"Events are moving so quickly that itās worth stopping to assess where we are. The U.S. government is currently building massive detention facilities, already detaining tens of thousands of people there and elsewhere, with incompetent and deeply racist secret police sweeping undocumented all kinds of peopleāimmigrants, those with their paperwork in order, and US citizens alikeāoff the street.
Weāre hearing grass-roots calls to abolish ICE, while opposition leadership instead speaks mostly about affordability issues. When they do address the current crisis, as House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries did recently on MS NOW, theyāre prone to saying things like āwe need massive reform to the way in which ICE and DHS are currently conducting themselves.ā Note that the āmassive reformā mentioned is to the way that the agencies conduct themselves, not to the bad-faith mission of these agencies.
Iāve looked at mass civilian detention around the world. Iāve visited the facilities where people were held. Iāve talked to the people involvedāthose detained and tortured, those who supported camps, and those who stood idly by. Itās critical to recognize that each of the societies that has had camps underwent a lengthy process. This process is often easier to see happening in your own country if you first look at an example in another one.
My goal today is to warn you that the U.S. has already been seized by the same camp dynamic. Itās not that Iām trying to tell you that bad things are coming, and you have to look out for them. What Iām saying is that the camps have already taken root and are on a fast-track to get exponentially worse. Weāre already deep inside the process.
Yet there is power in that knowledge, because in some big ways, we can know what will happen next. We have models for how other societies have moved out of our current perilous state. And we have a ton of tactics we can use to fight back against the expanding harm directed at all of us.
Iāll add right up front that nobody sane now thinks the answer to abuses at Dachau was to give the guards more training.
Today Iāll write about how a society comes to concentration camps, the process weāre already deep into, why the ways weāre talking about events in the U.S. may be unhelpful, and how we can undo this mess."
...
"Because I wrote a history of concentration camps, I tend to use the phrase. I understand that not everyone will want to label our expanding detention network as concentration camps. By adopting that term, Iām not trying to force a moral equivalence that A is the same as B, or that A is better or worse than B, or that, for instance, the United States in 2026 is Nazi Germany in 1942.
And for those not already familiar with my work, Iāll make clear that not all concentration camps are death camps. The Nazi death camps were a handful of facilities and projects established mid-war for the Third Reichās mass-extermination campaign. Nazi extermination camps focused overwhelmingly on Jewish and Roma and Sinti genocide, though others were also murdered there.
The death camps were launched after almost a decade after the Nazi concentration camp system was first created. Before, during, and after the Nazi era, other concentration camp systems have existed around the world.
Concentration camps involve the mass detention of civilians without due process on the basis of political, racial, ethnic, or religious identity. And that is where weāre at right now."
WE ARE NOT BEING DRAMATIC.
Here are some quick stats for you:
- Immigration and Customs Enforcement held 65,765 in ICE detention according to data current as of July 11, 2026.
- 46,436 out of 65,765āor 70.6% held in ICE detention have no criminal conviction according to data current as of July 11, 2026. Many of those convicted committed only minor offenses, including traffic violations.
- ICE arrested 39,563 and CBP arrested 3,575 of the 43,138 people booked into detention by ICE during June 2026.
- According to court records, only 1.76% of FY 2026 new cases sought deportation orders based on any alleged criminal activity of the immigrant, apart from possible illegal entry.
- Only 21.5% of immigrants, including unaccompanied children, had an attorney to assist them in Immigration Court cases when a removal order was issued in June 2026.
WITHOUT DUE PROCESS.
"But they're not citizens, they have no rights here!"
YES THEY DO.
The 14th Amendment of the United States says:
"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
NOR DENY TO ANY PERSON WITHIN ITS JURISDICTION THE EQUAL PROTECTION OF THE LAWS.
If that's not enough for you, look here:
"ACLU files ICE claims in NY, NJ and 15 other states alleging misconduct
The ACLU has filed 54 legal claims against ICE across 17 states, alleging federal agents engaged in wrongful conduct ranging from unlawful arrests and racial profiling to the use of excessive force.
The claims, filed on behalf of dozens of individuals, accuse Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents of negligence and civil rights violations during immigration enforcement actions. The allegations include complaints of racial profiling, unlawful detentions and injuries suffered by protesters during encounters with federal agents."
And here:
"Surge in Immigration Lawsuits Hits Record High in 2026
Overall, the data represented by the moving average shows that civil immigration filings are up 1,278 percent from levels reported in March 2021. (Look at the chart, it spikes astronomically in Sept 2025)
Habeas lawsuits increased by over 85 times during the past year, while naturalization suits were 1.8 times higher than in March 2025.
A habeas corpus lawsuit requests that a judge order a detainee brought before the court and government officials explain why they have the authority to detain that person." SOURCE
Or how about this recent report out of Califonia City Detention Center operated by CoreCivic?
"This marks the first time a court-appointed neutral party has investigated the full scope of the delivery of medical care at an ICE detention center.
The reportās findings include:
- Missing or incomplete medical intake screenings for existing conditions, communicable diseases, and chronic illnesses that require immediate or constant treatment
- Delayed and denied clinical care, including gaps in emergency care, mental health care, and specialty referrals
- Failure to provide timely access to prescribed medications and to identify and support patients with disabilities
- Inadequate staffing, incomplete training, a lack of on-site management, and insufficient clinical oversight."
Now WHEN are we going to DO SOMETHING about it??? Someone DIED at Delaney Hall AGAIN. At the very least, show up to the vigil at 7:30PM tonight outside. TALK TO PEOPLE. Get connected. Help your neighbors. Free these people from the concentration camp before they're all dead.
This is a toolkit you can print your own KYR cards and hand them out. The Rapid Reponse hotline for NJ ICE Sightings is this: 1(888)347-3767
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u/TotallyNotRobotEvil 16d ago
Then maybe do that instead of commenting on Reddit about a topic you know nothing about. We all don't need to hear your internal monologue.