86 Comments
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Therese S.'s avatar

Let's stop calling them detention centers. It is plain as day that they are concentration camps.

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defineandredefine's avatar

Indeed.

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celeste k.'s avatar

The country is becoming a powder keg, and it will explode if we cannot stop this inhumane treatment of our fellow humans.

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Dr Bob's avatar

Grifter Trump and his 'brown shirt' gang are doing everything possible to speed up the collapse!

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Susanna J. Sturgis's avatar

I've been thinking along these lines a lot, and remembering Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem." The French and Russian Revolutions also seem to have taken up permanent residence in my head. "What happens to a dream deferred?" or to a so-called democracy where "we the people" aren't being heard?

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Bonnie Devine's avatar

Thank you Judd. As I read this story on my front porch, this morning, I read it & wept. My husband was sitting next to me & all I could say is “ this isn’t my country anymore. I don’t recognize this country & I don’t wish to be here any longer.”

When you normalize (or trivialize cruelty & injustice) by the Republican Party selling hats & tshirts respect to it,) this is no longer a nation striving to be better, do better. As a nation, we have sunken to the depths of depravity; an administration that is effectively glorifying cruelty. We are still able at this time to speak out against it, but when leadership in this nation tires of having a mirror being held up to their faces & how ugly they’re being ( how ugly they are), the ability to speak out against them will likely be criminalized as well, or they will attempt to do so.

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Sarah Meiklejohn's avatar

Thank you Judd. We need to share this information. We have turned into a third world dictatorship!

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Kristin's avatar

This whole situation is quite dispiriting. Judd, I would like to see investigative time and effort put into who these ICE people are, how they are hired, what they make, how they are trained, etc. Keep up your fantastic work on behalf of all of us!

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Katy Bolger's avatar

I'm curious about ICE agents as well. Do they have to be cruel, racist and have Nazi tattoos to be an ICE agents?

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SeekingReason's avatar

Katy-of course they do. They are pardoned criminals..J6ers, Proud Boys etc. They owe trump, that’s why he released them. He needed Nazis.

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BTAM Master's avatar

The GOP mantra has really become "If you're not suffering, I'm not happy." How did we end up with so many sickos in power?

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Nancy's avatar

I think we know why. There are people who are energized by the vulgarity, cruelty, prejudice, misogyny. It's sad, but that's the only conclusion I can come to, especially when people vote against their own health and that of their children. We could say they are being duped, but there's sufficient evidence of the awfulness. I can only conclude they love it.

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CarolAinDC's avatar

The MAGA appointees, many loudly self-proclaimed Christians, seem not to care that all humans are created equal and deserving of respect for their humanity, no matter how they behave. This is shameful and unconscionable. Someone treating animals similarly would be subject to animal cruelty laws.

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Stacey E's avatar

Remember, Kristi Noem shot her puppy in a pit. Now she’s DHS secretary.

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Dr Bob's avatar

And took 72 hours to sign off on aid for the Texas floods (mean, nasty and incompetent!)

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SeekingReason's avatar

Dr Bob, And if it had been a Blue State, she would not have signed off.

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Nancy's avatar

And if a D had been in charge, the Rs would be screaming like their hair was on fire!

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Adam's avatar

There was a time when the shooting of one's dog woiuld have ended her career forever! Now had Biden or any registered democrat done anything remotely similar? Whoa Nellie!

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Nancy's avatar

We knew it and she was confirmed, regardless. I'm going to keep saying that it appears obvious that people are energized by the cruelty, prejudice, misogyny, and the fist dance.

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A Sarcastic Prophet's avatar

This is a concentration camp or at least an internment camp. Very soon I’m sure these detainees with be hired out as chain gangs to pick crops. I think that’s called slavery.

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mark's avatar

All HOMELAND SECURITY has to do is convict them in an immigration court of being here illegally and then they can be forced to work as slaves. In section 1 of the Thirteenth Amendment "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, EXCEPT as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted"

Thirteenth Amendment

Section 1

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

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Katy Bolger's avatar

I think that is the plan, Sarcastic Prophet. Don't take a weatherman to see which way the wind blows.

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SeekingReason's avatar

They won’t live long enough or be strong enough!

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A Sarcastic Prophet's avatar

What are the words that greeted the prisoners at Auschwitz? Arbeit macht frei. Work made them free by killing them.

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Joseph Mangano's avatar

It's not even the main focus of this post, but of *course* the Florida GOP is selling Alligator Alcatraz merchandise. The only thing right-wingers know how to do better than to memeify cruelty is to profit off it (at least the right-wingers who aren't the targets of the individual grift).

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JB's avatar
Jul 10Edited

Trump is opening a chain of American concentration camp that capture the horrors of Andersonville while Congress runs show trials and SCOTUS makes popcorn. Time for another strong letter.

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Dr Bob's avatar

We're spending more on ICE that Israel spends on defense!

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SeekingReason's avatar

And this is our tax money! I want Blue states to withhold federal $$ DEFUND THEM!

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Katy Bolger's avatar

Good reference. Remember Andersonville!

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Dr Bob's avatar

More like Alligator Auschwitz

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Leigh Woodward's avatar

What is wrong with the magas, ice and the lot of them. They are cruel and evil. What has this country become?

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Karen Monroy's avatar

This is beyond shameful. And worse collective hand wringing is such privilege. Instead of ticking off space rides from one’s bucket list, perhaps folks with gravitas of some kind could go to these centers and be witness to the cruelty—and talk about that.

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Brenda's avatar

This is horrific! How can Americans accept this treatment of human beings!!! How can we accept this kind of treatment from our president? This is not leadership it’s dictatorship pure and simple!!!

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Susanna J. Sturgis's avatar

I'm glad attention is being paid to the horrors of "Alligator Alcatraz" but conditions in many U.S. prisons have been horrific for many decades. I was just 20 when Attica Prison in upstate NY exploded in violence that was provoked by terrible conditions: Sept. 9, 1971. The prison population expanded greatly during the Reagan years (as did the homeless population). But "we the people" -- especially the white ones -- keep electing Republicans.

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Jim Carmichael's avatar

Add this to the long list of crimes committed by this administration.

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Adam's avatar

Every day, the list, it grows.

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Deepak Puri's avatar

Who spent $600 million of FEMA disaster relief funds on a concentration camp? Check this map.

https://thedemlabs.org/2025/07/09/alligator-auschwitz-600-million-fema-disaster-relief-funds-concentration-camp-map/

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