We are sliding folks, and sliding fast. The problems with the CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) are not new, and ICE has been problematic since its inception in 2003 – along with the creation of Homeland Security. In other words, Customs, Border Patrol and 2o other agencies were consolidated under DHS, and ICE was created as a security police force targeted at “aliens”, all in response to the attacks of 2001. In my opinion, virtually everything that was initiated as part of the “war on terror” is tainted in more ways than I can count and should all be thrown out or recrafted. Not only is there a blatant racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia embedded in the very conception and focus of “Homeland” Security, it is their express mission. That is not to minimize the intrusion on the Constitutional rights and protections of everyone citizen or non-citizen, regardless of race or religion.
We should not be surprised at the Us-Them tenor, nor increasing dehumanization, particularly when policies are instituted that demand cruelty as political message. The structure itself increases the likelihood of drawing people into these agencies who may already have their own issues with race, immigrants, and expressing their power over others; the atmosphere created, tolerated, or even encouraged will inevitably push the boundaries of acceptable behavior. Once this starts to grow, and the situations begin to deteriorate, even those who might otherwise abhor such environments may find themselves doing and supporting things they would never have imagined themselves doing. This is in part due to norms sliding into barbarism, and cognitive dissonance. It is not uncommon when people are forced to do things that are repellent to them that they embrace a mind set that allows them to do what is demanded (or rewarded). In other words, we may change our attitudes and beliefs in order to reduce the very uncomfortable and internally threatening conflict in which we find ourselves. Such changes of attitude and belief may be part of what is referred to as “Stockholm Syndrome” where hostages identify with their captors, and most certainly in military situations where there is an explicit expectation of killing others – including civilians.
We have allowed the creation of a toxic environment, and we have stood back while a President who supports the “Alt-Right”, and a Republican Party that has deliberately structured itself along white supremacist grounds, has fanned the flames of “monster making” in regard to people from south of the border (and people of color within our own borders). While it is frightening that this hate and hate mongering is increasingly acceptable, as is demonstrated through the writings of the Facebook group below, but also in the reports from congress people of slurs and comments by detention center staff in front of their supervisors.
We are in dangerous waters, and the report below is but one very disturbing example of just how dangerous.
At what point do we start saying clear and loud “Not In Our Name”?
