Words & Phrases We Can Do Without

DHS is a human rights monstrosity

The Department of Homeland Security sounds so innocuous. Who could be opposed to affording America “freedom from danger” or “freedom from fear or anxiety,” as Merriam-Webster defines “security”? Surely we do not want to deprive Americans of “measures taken to guard against espionage or sabotage, crime, attack, or escape,” and/or deny them “the state of being able to reliably afford or access what is needed to meet one's basic needs,” (two other definitions of “security.”)

But in its current incarnation, the Department of Homeland Security is providing precisely none of those things. It is provoking fear and anxiety among immigrants (legal or undocumented) and even native-born citizens. It has ceased to focus on protecting Americans from criminals or espionage (more than 93 percent of whom have never been convicted of any violent offense, while 65 percent have no convictions whatsoever). Instead, masked, unidentified shock troops have been regularly attacking hard-working immigrants or just those they assume are immigrants, mistakenly seizing citizens, and shipping them off to foreign hellholes or unsafe domestic camps. Depriving suspected undocumented migrants of dignity, due process, and humane treatment, conducting violent intrusions into workplaces, schools, and courtrooms, and creating labor and food scarcity as workers disappear, DHS has become a menace to public safety.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

Masked, unidentified agents have been “systematically” cornering brown-skinned people in a show of force across Southern California, tackling those who attempt to leave, arresting them without probable cause and then placing them in “dungeon-like” conditions without access to lawyers, a federal lawsuit alleges.

The report continues:

The lawsuit filed Wednesday by immigrant rights groups against the Trump administration describes the region as “under siege” by agents, some dressed in military-style clothing and carrying out “indiscriminate immigration raids flooding street corners, bus stops, parking lots, agricultural sites, day laborer corners.” It seeks to block the administration’s “ongoing pattern and practice of flouting the Constitution and federal law” during immigration raids in the L.A. area.

And if things have not been horrifying enough, DHS is about to morph into an even more monstrous operation that will bring America that much closer to a police state. Under the morally repugnant reconciliation bill, taxpayers will be spending “$170 billion for immigration- and border enforcement-related funding provisions.” That includes $45B (a 265% increase in ICE’s detention budget) and “$29.9 billion toward ICE’s enforcement and deportation operations, increasing ICE’s annual budget three-fold.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) warned on Bluesky:

This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion—making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA, & others combined. It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.

The Florida migrant detention center, recently the subject of coverage that inanely adopts Donald Trump’s deplorable, alliterative nickname, stands as a human rights abomination. “The hastily constructed detention camp in the Everglades that began processing immigrant detainees late this week has already flooded once, may not meet hurricane codes and is not officially approved or funded by the federal government,” the Washington Post reports. “Experts say detainees and staff will face far more common hazards than the swampland terrors gleefully envisioned by state and national Republicans to discourage escapes.”

The detention camp is “reminiscent of some of our country’s darkest chapters,” the ACLU of Florida explains. “Expanding the mass detention machine — especially in remote, dangerous, and unsanitary conditions — puts lives at risk and diverts public dollars from the services our communities truly need.” If we tolerate, or worse, make jokes about these conditions, we are inviting DHS to set up throughout the U.S. similar facilities that international human rights organizations would deplore in other countries.

In addition to that stain on America, DHS is complicit in torture, according to the amended complaint of wrongfully deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He alleges that “he was subjected to severe mistreatment upon arrival at CECOT, including but not limited to severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture.” He attests:

Upon arrival at CECOT, the detainees were greeted by a prison official who stated, “Welcome to CECOT. Whoever enters here doesn’t leave.” Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was then forced to strip, issued prison clothing, and subjected to physical abuse, including being kicked in the legs with boots and struck on his head and arms to make him change clothes faster. His head was shaved with a zero razor, and he was frog-marched to a cell, being struck with wooden batons along the way. By the following day, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia had visible bruises and lumps all over his body...

Plaintiff Abrego Garcia repeatedly observed prisoners in nearby cells who he understood to be gang members violently harm each other with no intervention from guards or personnel. Screams from nearby cells would similarly ring out throughout the night without any response from prison guards or personnel. During his first two weeks at CECOT, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia suffered a significant deterioration in his physical condition and lost approximately 31 pounds…

No decent American could fail to be horrified and deeply ashamed that our government, under the auspices of the Orwellian name, “Department of Homeland Security,” is complicit in these human rights atrocities.

Donald Trump, DHS officials, and every Republican lawmaker who condones, empowers, funds, and whitewashes DHS’s despicable operations are complicit in a mammoth, militarized machine that has systematized suffering, fear, and terror. The operation potentially dwarfs previous American human rights abuses, including the internment of Japanese during WWII and political prisoners during the Red Scare.

Kristi Noem, United States secretary of homeland security

We should not merely discard the phrase “Homeland Security,” we should abolish the department in its current form, assign many of its operations (e.g., customs control, naturalization processes) to other departments, and replace it with a disciplined and law-abiding border security operation that focuses on real threats to the U.S. Until we do that, America—no longer that shining city on the hill—joins the ranks of abusive, lawless, and cruel tin-pot autocracies that deserve the civilized world’s scorn.