The U.S. government’s policy detaining migrant parents while sheltering their children elsewhere is reminiscent of Adolf Hitler’s slave-labor camps, according to a Tweet from former intelligence chief and NeverTrump activist Gen. Michael Hayden.
Hayden, who ran the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005, and was CIA director from 2006 to 2009, Tweeted an image of the entrance to the Birkenau slave-labor camp, with the comment “other governments have separated mothers and children.”
Other governments have separated mothers and children pic.twitter.com/tvlBkGjT0h
— Gen Michael Hayden (@GenMhayden) June 16, 2018
So far, Trump’s policy is sheltering roughly 2,000 children in facilities away from their detained parents.
In contrast, Hitler’s wars killed roughly 30 million people and smashed up numerous countries.
The Birkenau slave-labor camp was located near the Auschwitz killing center, and it housed the laborers who were used to distill fuel and build ammunition. Many of the laborers were killed by the brutal work and guards.
The shelters for the migrants’ children, however, are different from Birkenau, according to journalists who have visited several of the shelters:
Hayden sent out a stream of Tweets defending his Nazi comparison while he was also recommending his favorite wines to other Twitter users.
Wasn’t hard. Really. No effort at all. https://t.co/WK4vVaWBBs
— Gen Michael Hayden (@GenMhayden) June 16, 2018
Usually Sauvignon Blanc. Occasionally Viognier or Sancerre https://t.co/v5MU6sWVoj
— Gen Michael Hayden (@GenMhayden) June 16, 2018
This is Birkenau. Then Germany. Now Poland. NO ONE who now walks through that portal on that siding can casually believe that civilized behavior is guaranteed. pic.twitter.com/T1wLka18Vf
— Gen Michael Hayden (@GenMhayden) June 16, 2018
Hayden’s Tweet was cheered by other NeverTrump activists, including former GOP consultant John Weaver. He has worked as a political consultant for various pro-migration GOP politicians, including Sen. John McCain, Jon Huntsman, and Gov. John Kasich.
Thank you @GenMhayden https://t.co/TBfFtxx5NN
— John Weaver (@jwgop) June 16, 2018
Hayden’s Nazi claim is commonplace among left-wing activists who are eager to make political hay from Trump’s refusal to let migrants use their children to get past U.S. border rules.
Under the 1997 Flores legal settlement, officials cannot detain parents with children for more than 20 days. This rule means border officials are forced to release migrants pending their eventual court hearing — if the migrants bring children with them.
Many migrants are rationally bringing their children with them to exploit the Flores loophole.
Attorney General Jeff Session is trying to change the incentives for migrants, many of whom borrow money in the hope of earning more money by working long hours in the U.S. underground economy. The debt is often owed to the Mexican criminal cartels, who charge huge tolls as migrants try to sneak across the border. The migration flow is very large — more than 400,000 migrants held work-permits in 2017 while waiting for asylum hearings.
But Sessions’ policy may change the migrants’ incentives. If they cannot get to jobs to pay their debts because of Sessions’ zero-tolerance policy, the next wave of migrants may quit their migration.
Wealthy Democrats are trying to shame ordinary Americans into opening their borders to poor migrants.
“We should be very blunt: The biggest tool we have is shame,” Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal said at a June 14 press conference on Capitol Hill. He said:
We need to shame this administration into changing an inhumane, un-American policy because it is totally unprecedented … It is not required by law, it is unprecedented in recent history — it was not done under the previous administration — [and] it is creating thousands of detainees.
Many progressives are using the new policy to overtly or subtly portray Trump and border officials as Nazis.
“Send them to the camps,” said Philip Gourevitch, a writer at The New Yorker:
Unlicensed tent cities are called camps –
As in send them to the camps. https://t.co/TTzgBJmp6z— Philip Gourevitch (@PGourevitch) June 14, 2018
MSNBC personality Chris Hayes retweeted another activist’s portrayal of Trump’s policy as a “Holocaust.”
Surprised there isn't a protest in Manhattan tomorrow… https://t.co/JU0FdXlfFD
(There is one in Brooklyn, however) https://t.co/Apq1YJYk3X
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 14, 2018
The top editor at Vox.com top retweeted and validated another Nazi reference by Hayes:
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1007164666483789824
The top editor at The New Yorker’ reprised the ‘We were following orders’ claim used by Nazi officials to defend their killings:
https://twitter.com/winterjessica/status/1006879985859289089
Immigration lawyer David Leopold updated a quote from an anti-Nazi pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
When they came for the immigrants I was silent because I was as citizen. When they came for the citizens….https://t.co/NIi365AlUz
— David Leopold (@DavidLeopold) June 12, 2018
Feminist website Wonkette compared the Central American migrants to Jews fleeing the Nazis’ genocidal policy:
No Asylum For Migrants Fleeing Domestic Violence Or Gangs, Because We're Literally In Hell Now
https://t.co/7iBlalelIs by @DoktorZoom— Wonkette (@Wonkette) June 13, 2018
A pro-migration website portrayed Trump’s aide, Steve Miller, as Hitler’s propaganda chief, Josef Goebbels.
Stephen Miller is unavailable at the moment. He is getting his weekly Rat Blood Transfusion https://t.co/umKji8ULuN
— ALT- Immigration (@ALT_uscis) June 17, 2018
TV host Rosie O’Donnell portrayed Miller as “baby Hitler.”
Stephen Miller – god will not forgive you #HitlerPlaybook pic.twitter.com/TDx5WWs9sa
— ROSIE (@Rosie) June 16, 2018
Phil Klinkner, a professor at Hamilton College, used the detention-and-housing dispute to portray Trump and his supporters as Nazis.
— Phil Klinkner (@pklinkne) June 16, 2018
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.