When my mother was a small girl, her grandmother would occasionally pull out an old, dusty album featuring her family from “the old country” (an area right outside of Vienna, Austria). There was Uncle Shmuel, Aunt Sara, and Cousin Avraham. Laughter from memories gave way to a pained expression; these noble, colorful people met their untimely demise at the hands of the Nazi regime.
Fast-forward to the present day, where genocide and state violence are on the decline across the globe and (imperfectly) monitored by various watchdog groups and governmental agencies. Many have welcomed these improving metrics, while rightly calling for increased accountability from murderous regimes.
Unfortunately, however, some have been caught up in a warped reality, where American political developments are akin to the rise of the Third Reich. Recently, for instance, a story went viral accusing the Trump administration introducing a policy requiring captured illegal immigrants to wear an insignia similar to the infamous yellow Star of David that Jews were forced to put on. False stories like this one only brew a pot of hysteria that trivializes the very real suffering of maligned groups through the centuries.
Like many fake news stories traipsing around on the interwebs, the “insignia” story captivated browsers with an alarming headline and a reasonable-sounding website name. On May 24, Washington Press released a story claiming, “Trump has just begun forcing detained immigrants to wear yellow insignias.” By managing editor Colin Taylor’s account, parents “locked away in ICE’s concentration camps” were given a “yellow ‘bracelet’ to indicate…status as a detained illegal immigrant.” To Taylor, this sounds … all too familiar; he’s reminded of “regimes enforcing a system of racial hierarchy and a policy of ethnic cleansing – which is quite obviously what Trump is trying to do here.”
The author, however, fails to mention a detail relevant to the story: The bracelets have been in use since at least 2013, as part of a border enforcement program called Operation Streamline.
The idea behind the undertaking was to funnel illegal border-crossers into the criminal justice system, as a part of a “zero tolerance” approach to criminally prosecute people unlawfully inside the United States. This often meant that detained immigrants had to don bracelets, which is par for the course for many individuals behind bars. This approach was in place throughout the Obama administration, amidst plenty of jailings and bracelet wearing.
Don’t take my word for it – check out the picture on page 20 of this 2013 report on the issue.
But this misrepresentation of the ID policy, and merging into the general Trump administration immigration policy, is useful for those seeking to further an alarmist narrative. Case in point: Later in Taylor’s article, he connects this development to the Office of Refugee Resettlement announcement that “they had lost track of 1,500 migrant children who were supposed to be in foster care – some of whom the government accidentally released to human traffickers.”
Again, these do-oh policies have been in place some time, and reflect epic government ineptitude over anything else.
To see why, check out this 2016 report by the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Once immigrant children are placed into foster care, the federal government “performed home studies (of sponsors) in less than 4.3 percent of cases from 2013 through 2015.” Moreover, the Senate reports that sponsors are allowed “to bar contact between the child and an HHS care provider attempting to provide those services.”
This sounds more like reason #34,231 not to trust the federal government, regardless of administration. It doesn’t at all advance the intended message, that “Trump is a fascist.”
The widespread detention of illegals may not be a prudent or moral way to deal with border-crossers. Incarceration is a very expensive and harsh way to deal with people just wanting to come to America for a chance to work hard. Separating children from their families creates plenty of trauma and presents logistical and legal nightmares for detainer and detainee.
But the point is, we can have a debate about things like Operation Streamline without calling people Nazis just because they disagree with us, or distorting facts to make them seem more like Nazis.
The very real nightmares of genocide and disenfranchisement across the globe, today and throughout history, must be identified as uniquely terrible. Comparing horrors such as the Holocaust to a misguided immigration policy dishonors the dead without contributing to meaningful discourse.
Ross Marchand is an economics writer and alumnus of the Mercatus Center.
