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Ignorant, Illegal, Racist, Immigration Policy [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-07-04
We need a language to fight what is going on in the Trump administration. Ms. Haake pointed out that the so-called immigration camps are neither holding cells nor prisons, but concentration camps. We need to adopt that term and use it relentlessly.
That would be a good start. But, it is not enough, and it doesn’t encompass the whole of the Trump political agenda. The entire immigration policy needs to be characterized in a way that calls it out for what it is.
I glanced at MSNBC this morning and was listening to what was described simply as the Trump immigration policy. Calling this an immigration policy does not accurately describe it. I propose the term IIRIP, for ignorant, illegal, racist, immigration policy. I could add another “I” for inhumane, but think a term pronounced eye-rip might go far enough. We simply have to use it enough to popularize it.
Ignorant is obvious. Seemingly, all that is being seen is the color of the skin of those being detained. There seems to be no recognition of the humanity, of those deemed, “other”.
Illegal is obvious. No warrant, no officer identification, no habeus corpus...clearly we are beyond the bounds of U.S. law.
Racist is obvious. Skin color seems to be the sole determinant of detention. As of now, browness makes you a target. Seemingly, Afghans and Iraqi immigrants qualify for this status. Foreign students, especially Asian, are being targeted. Today, it was announced that Haitians are next on the detention list. Just to ensure no one misses the point, white South Africaners have been given a pass despite having no claim whatsoever on futive status.
Immigration policy. That is the term for what was never really a policy. Historically it has been just a collection of decisions that accumulated from Congressional and Presidential actions over the years. It is still under the MAGA rule not so much a policy as an attitude. As was said of pornography, “I do not know how to define it, but I know it when I see it”.
In short, anyone not of northern European ancestry seems to be other enough. This is why skin color seems to be the motivating factor in the so-called policy. They really do not have any other criteria they can agree upon. They cannot very well say the truth outloud.
For those who wish to quibble that maybe, Trump will decide to give a break to immigrants in the farming and tourism industry, I think it may be helpful to consider racists have never had any concerns about using people of different color as slave labor. Heck, they’d ship in folks of any color or nationality if they could find a use for them.
We fought a war over this. While it started as a war for national unification, by the time of the Emancipation Proclamation, the primary rationale for the war had changed. We won. Seemingly, though, we are giving back the victory.
We did not fight a war to end concentration camps. That was primarily a by-product of our victory. That said, we sure took credit for the liberation of those camps. Seemingly, now, we are starting our own.
So, I ask that everyone starts using the terms concentration camps and IIRIP. We need our own language to counteract their propaganda.
While I do not think Kossacks need this story, I do think we need to get the idea out to the media, both mainstream and other. The media will not use these terms until they see them becoming popularized. Thus, we need to popularize them.
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