Vice President Harris said today, “They have pledged to carry out the largest deportation, a mass deportation, in American history,” at an event hosted by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, and she asked the hard question: “How’s that gonna happen, massive raids? Massive detention camps?” she asked. “What are they talking about?”
MY RURAL AMERICA applauds the Vice President. We ask: Massive detention camps and massive raids? Isn’t that what the Nazis did? Then, the target was Jews, Gays, people with disabilities, political leaders, and more. Trump’s goal focuses on color, immigrants of color. Is that supposed to be better? Someone needs to ask these hard questions.
How many people does Trump want to deport? 15 to 17 million people. Think about football stadiums. The Dallas football stadium holds 80,000 – with 105,000 for standing room only. In round numbers — 100,000, it would take 150 to 170 football stadiums to hold the people Trump wants to deport. Would it be too generous to think we would feed them while they wait to be bused? Trucked? Marched? Out of the country.
Who will do the work? Immigrants die on our bridges when they are working for us (See Baltimore). Immigrants tend our elderly in nursing homes. Immigrants work in our meat packing plants and pick our vegetables. Immigrants clean our houses. Immigrants are often our friends.
How many law enforcement people will it take? Do taxpayers pay for the camps and those who do Trump’s round-ups? Will some of us risk our lives hiding people Trump wants to deport? Will Trump arrest us if he catches us?
Or maybe, instead of local law enforcement, Trump calls out the US military. When asked if he would use the military, Trump answered, “It would. When we talk military, generally speaking, I talk National Guard.”
The Posse Comitatus Act is a federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385, original at 20 Stat. 152) signed by President Rutherford B. Hayes on June 18, 1878. It limits the federal government’s use of federal military personnel to enforce domestic policies within the United States.
What would the Supreme Court do? Possibly, whatever Trump wants, the Court would agree.