Trump Channels Hitler in Youngstown:
Fascist Attacks on Immigrants
July 27, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Anyone who doesn’t think that the Trump/Pence regime is fascist and could carry out genocidal crimes needs to come to grips with the speech Trump gave on July 25 in Youngstown, Ohio—especially what he said about immigrants:
…foreign criminal gangs that have brought illegal drugs, violence, horrible bloodshed to peaceful neighborhoods all across our country.... The predators and criminal aliens who poison our communities with drugs and prey on innocent young people, these beautiful, beautiful innocent young people, will find no safe haven anywhere in our country. And you’ve seen some of these stories about some of these animals….
They don’t want to use guns because it’s too fast and it’s not painful enough. So they’ll take a young, beautiful girl, 16, 15, and others, and they slice them and dice them with a knife because they want them to go through excruciating pain before they die.
“Predators”... “criminal aliens who … prey on innocent young people”... “animals”... These venomous words are aimed at vilifying and criminalizing all 11 million undocumented immigrants—and, by implication, casting suspicion on millions more non-white legal immigrants and on all Latinos, including those who were born in the U.S. These immigrants are human beings whose backbreaking labor has been the source of vast profits for U.S. capitalism. People whose only “crime” is seeking shelter from the horrors this same capitalist-imperialist system has visited upon their homelands—Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and many other countries across the world.
Trump openly called for lawless brutality in carrying out a “crackdown” on immigrants and sanctuary cities: “…we’re not doing it in a politically correct fashion. We’re doing it rough.... Our guys are rougher than their guys.... Our people are tougher and stronger and meaner and smarter than the gangs.”
The Immigration and Custom Enforcement agency (ICE) is planning raids across the country that target undocumented 16- and 17-year-olds accused of having gang ties. According to Reuters, ICE is rounding up and possibly deporting these youths based on whether they have tattoos, dress in “typical” gang clothing, or even just frequent areas with gangs. The National Immigration Law Center in Los Angeles says, “We have seen babies labeled as potential gang members.”
The Trump/Pence regime is also reportedly moving toward ending DACA, or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival, which had given temporary deportation relief to people who had been brought to the U.S. without documents as young children. The cancellation of DACA would subject nearly two million people—whose personal information is in the hands of the government—to deportation.
First They Came for the Immigrants...
Trump’s lies draw on the racism and white supremacy deeply baked into American society, culture, and history. Yet how is Trump’s demonization of immigrants fundamentally different than Hitler’s demonization of the Jews (and others)? In the wake of Trump’ speeches to the Boy Scouts and now at Youngstown, more people and commentators are making this comparison. Now is the time to act on this understanding.
Everyone needs to face the fact that fascism is happening here: Trump/Pence is a fascist regime which is, as Trump made clear at Youngstown, aggressively pushing forward as fast as it can to carry out its agenda and consolidate its rule.
We cannot allow this fascist regime to pick off one group after another. We need to stand with all who are being targeted. Today, that means massively opposing ALL attacks on immigrants, Muslims, LGBTQ, and others.
All this underscores the urgency, as Refuse Fascism says, of fighting for a new stage of resistance—squarely focused on one central objective: driving the Trump/Pence fascist regime from power before it can solidify its power and carry out its whole nightmarish agenda.
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