The Definition

Essential to the framework for sovereign countries is the idea that each ruling government is responsible for the people within its confines. After all, without such an assumption the principle of borders, separate economies, unique cultures and languages, virtually everything necessary to define distinct nation-states breaks down along with the international order the entire exercise is meant to undergird. 

After World War II and the Holocaust, it enabled the United Nations to create a Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Although non-binding, the US-led proclamation, adopted in 1948, constituted the mission statement of the International Bill of Human Rights (IBHR), which would form the basis for international human rights law moving forward. 

Since so much of the Nazi regime’s pogrom against European Jewry involved the practice of murderous deportation, it’s hardly surprising that the tenets of the IBHR regarding the subject are unambiguous. Summarizing them makes clear how horribly sinister Trump and the MAGA (formerly Republican) party’s intentions are. America is now in flagrant violation of virtually every protection international law has established for people subject to deportation. 

First, international law establishes a “Prohibition of Refoulement,” which bans nations from deporting people to other countries where their freedom and safety are endangered. It’s hard to imagine a more hideous example of that than a one-way trip to El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, literally hell on earth. 

Trump’s ghoulish powwow with El Salvadoran strongman, Nayib Bukele, unfurled his unapologetic ambitions to relabel all immigrants in the US, regardless of legal status, as criminals and terrorists, fully deserving the concentration camp conditions his new stooge made clear he was happy to provide.   Humane treatment of deportees, another IBHR priority, was only fodder for sarcastic ridicule of journalists with the temerity to wonder about the condition of Kilmer Abrego Garcia, the innocent US resident ICE sent to Bukele’s abyss.

Next, there is “Respect for Family Life.” This clause stipulates that concerted attempts to break apart families are a crime against humanity. Trump was already checking off that box during his first term. Back then it proved a bridge too far for even most Republicans to cross. No more. Disgusting incidents of ICE agents being confronted at schools, not to mention parents being whisked off the streets as their children watch, lay bare that this time around no quarter will be given to keeping families intact.

Then there is the biggie - due process. The paramount right to a fair hearing and resources to challenge government efforts to expel you is the firewall against mass round ups and chaotic mistreatment. Here the grotesque symmetry between MAGA cruelty and Fox/AM news has been on full display. 

Assuming anyone rounded up is guilty of a violent crime and not worthy of a privilege such as due process is the go-to talk track. Border czar Tom Homan led the way when ABC’s infuriatingly polite Jonathan Karl asked if ICE detainees get any chance to prove their innocence “before you take them out of the country and put them into a notorious prison in a country that they’re not even from.” “Due process? What was Laken Riley’s due process?” Homan sneered, referring to the young murder victim Trump has commandeered to become the face of his libel that immigrants are only here for our blood. 

Fox’s Brian Kilmeade fleshed out the grotesque supposition further scoffing it was “impractical” before getting to the heart of the matter. “If we are going to give every one of these guys a day in court and a lawyer, we can’t do it, they don’t deserve it. Our system doesn’t need to be double-burdened.” The fascist echo chamber now presumes only true-blue US citizens deserve the luxury of due process, certainly not “illegals” gaming the system to skate from their mayhem. 

Finally, there is the practice of mass deportation itself. International law could not be clearer… mass deportation is a crime against humanity. Trump promised to make pursuing it his top priority at every campaign stop. In fact, his pledge enjoyed overwhelming bipartisan support as 9 in 10 voters favored the practice. Now we are seeing exactly what it looks like in all the depraved detail Stephen Miller can conjure. 

Hundreds of thousands of human beings, a sizable percentage who have been our friends and neighbors, employees, colleagues, and bosses, are being targeted en masse for the worst government treatment man can inflict. This is a campaign we once led the world to condemn. Now it is our national shame. We can’t allow it to continue.     - BC