It’s what happened to Jews in Germany in 1938 when their passports were declared invalid. That is what is beginning to happen here, now, to Hispanic citizens along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Oh, is it bad to compare the GOP to Nazis? Well, if members of the GOP do not like being compared to Nazis, they should consider not behaving exactly like Nazis.
Hispanic U.S. citizens, some of whom were in the U.S. military, are not being allowed to renew their passports. This is reportedly happening to “hundreds, even thousands” of Latinos, according to a report in the Washington Post. They’re getting letters from the State Department saying it does not believe they are citizens. The government claims their citizenships are fraudulent. “I’ve had probably 20 people who have been sent to the detention center—U.S. citizens,” Jaime Diez, an attorney in Brownsville, told The Washington Post.
The Washington Post also reports on ICE officials coming to citizens’ homes and taking their passports away. This is an escalation from a few months ago, when Americans were detained by ICE officials just for speaking Spanish to one another.
The administration is currently launching an effort to take citizenship from people who they suspect of fraud in obtaining it. Fraud in these cases is exceedingly rare. The last time the government tried to strip people of their citizenship was, according to Columbia Professor Mae Ngai, during The Red Scare of the 1950s. As Ngai remarks, McCarthyism is not typically remembered as a good period in American history.
There is good reason to believe that this could portend still worse things to come for the U.S. Hispanic population, unless people begin to speak out loudly, and fast.
All of the sources linked in the article- and the sources linked in those sources- are working and up to date as of 9/11/2018. None of them are behind paywalls, either.
Here are additional sources:
Cancellation of Jewish Passports Before the Holocaust:
Timeline of Nazi Abuses, PBS.org
Relevant information is under the heading October 5th.1938- “The Fateful Year”, Yadvashem.org- the World Holocaust Remembrance Center
Anti-Jewish Legislation in Pre-War Germany, Holocaust Encyclopedia- United State Holocaust Memorial Museum
Relevant information is under the heading 1937-1938, third paragraph down.The Holocaust: Time, line of Jewish Persecution, Jewish Virtual Library.org
Cancellation of Hispanic Passports:
Is the Trump Administration Revoking Passports of U.S. Citizens? – Snopes.com
Trump Administration Is Revoking Passports of Some U.S. Citizens of Hispanic Descent- Fortune.com
Why You Should Actually Be Terrified Right Now
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