Yeah this is part of a big issue. Veterans being deported for quite some time now (before Trump). And correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s not always for crimes. Someone’s paperwork could be off. As a foreign-born veteran I think it’s shameful that it’s happening, but it shows the lie of “support the troops” that comes out of many people’s mouths.
The deportation of veterans is part of the entire deportation regime. Not the focus on violent criminals, but this wanton, almost evil, need to break up families (isn’t cruel and unusual punishment for the American citizens who are left behind or have to suffer? Of course no one will mention these things, because the driving force behind this isn’t “law” but racism).
I’m a citizen, veteran, but I know that even my own existence in the country is shaky. Nothing I’ve done, but I know that “the law” is merely a pretext for what some people (Trump et al) want: ethnic cleansing. Naturalized citizens are being deported on the basis, not of intent, but that something was “off” about their paperwork. This is going through the civil courts so it doesn’t have to meet the same level of evidence (intent, again, being the big point).
This is not a bug but a feature.
I recently read Eichmann in Jerusalem by the brilliant and prescient Arendt, and she mentions how the start to the Nazis full blown murders was the initial almost test-drive of hateful deporting of people who were naturalized and were now unlawful.
That term illegal is really part and parcel of this kind of thinking (not some law and order tripe that some people usually try to cover it with).[1]
Once you let people know that the idea of citizenship isn’t a right but a privilege given to people by a certain subsection of the population, then we can move away from the idea of citizens with rights given by a Constitution and just a way to control the population (the non-white, in this latest iteration in our nation).
Again, it’s a human rights issue. The rest is superfluous.
[1] I remember reading about white people born off grid with no papers, nothing. Guess what happens when they come “online”? Yup they get papers, few questions asked. I wonder why?
