Progressive Jewish Groups Defend Detained Migrants

By SETH SANDRONSKY

Progressive actions against Uncle Sam’s mistreatment of migrants from Central America and Mexico is growing. Some groups of American Jews are publicly opposing the federal government’s policies of punishing migrant children and adults, some of whom are climate refugees fleeing drought.

At an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (under the US Department of Homeland Security) facility in Marysville, north of Sacramento, Calif., Jewish Action NorCal held a vigil to protest inhumane treatment of detained migrants. “The rhetoric that paints immigrants as vermin, invaders, and sexual predators is pretty much what the Nazis said about Jews in the 1930s leading up to the death camps and Holocaust, said Seth Sanders, Professor of Bible and Jewish Studies at UC Davis, in a statement. “Jews should not look away when other communities are treated this way.”

Progressive Jewish groups are looking straight at that oppressive situation. At the Yuba County Jail, the last ICE detention facility in Northern California, in solidarity with immigrant communities, Jewish Action NorCal bore witness in commemorating Tisha B’Av, the Jewish day of mourning. The public protest was part of more than 50 Jewish vigils nationwide, many held outside facilities holding detained migrants.

A class-action lawsuit filed against ICE and Trump White House officials in a California federal court recently makes for chilling reading.

“On a daily basis, Plaintiffs and the record number of immigrants currently in ICE custody are subjected to horrific, inhumane, punitive, and unlawful conditions of confinement. These human beings — many of whom have fled torture — are packed into immigration prisons in which they are denied health care, refused disability accommodations, and subjected to arbitrary and punitive isolation, a practice that is increasingly considered torture. Although ICE detains individuals in a patchwork — and currently ballooning — system of private prisons, county jails, and directly operated facilities, the inhumane and punitive conditions described herein are startlingly similar across the entire system.”

Meanwhile, President Trump and others in and out of the GOP scorn migrants seeking refuge. Such hateful rhetoric links to the white racist terrorist who fired an automatic weapon to commit mass murders in El Paso, Texas. There, the shooter targeted Hispanic shoppers at a Wal-Mart store crowded with back-to-school shopping in full swing.

Jewish Action NorCal is also involved in lobbying CalPERS, a large public employee retirement fund, to divest from the private firms that contract with ICE. The companies range from CoreCivic to GEO Group to General Dynamics and United Rentals.

“We, Jews in Northern California,” the group’s mission statement reads, “are sickened and deeply distressed by the actions by the current administration in creating and expanding camps that house children in cages, where sexual assault, physical assault, and conditions akin to torture, are being applied to immigrants of non-white skin.”

The issue of where American Jews stand on Israel is controversial to say the least.

“We represent varying political views, denominations, stances on Israel, and approaches to halakhah and Jewish observance. We do not expect to agree on everything. But we stand united in our commitment to justice and compassion for immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and everyone trying to find refuge and safety in this country.”

Seth Sandronsky lives and works in Sacramento. He is a journalist and member of the Pacific Media Workers Guild. Email sethsandronsky@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, September 15, 2019

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