Oklahoma Republican Proposes Nazi Plan to Round Up 82,000 Non-English Speaking Schoolkids
May 15, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a reader:
The fascist horror show is intensifying to new, even more vicious levels. In Oklahoma, Mike Ritze, a Republican representative, proposed a plan to reduce the state’s deficit by rounding up the state’s 82,000 non-English-speaking school children and turning them over to ICE (federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency). He said, “Identify them and then turn them over to ICE to see if they truly are citizens—and do we really have to educate noncitizens?” This is literally out of Hitler’s Nazi playbook.
Ritze’s proposal was widely opposed, including by some other Republican politicians who—revealing their equally sick morality—said his plan would not save enough money. But the fact that such a proposal—labeling children whose first language is not English as being unworthy of consideration as human beings—could even be seriously raised reveals how “legitimatized” such fascist mentality has already become. The very act of proposing such a plan to prey on vulnerable children is a form of terrorizing a whole community—a crime against humanity.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 1982 decision, Plyler v. Doe, that states cannot constitutionally deny education to any student based on immigration status. But in Trump’s America, where the ideal is to “make America white again,” the green light has been given to dehumanize and criminalize immigrants as part of an extreme remaking of society. Trump has been whipping up a xenophobic hysteria against all immigrants and Muslims. There is now a right-wing majority on the Supreme Court. And the head of the Department of Justice, Jeff Sessions, is a rabidly anti-immigrant white supremacist.
It’s good that Ritze’s proposal was met by immediate outrage by many. The ACLU called it “disgustingly inhumane” and said, “A government that threatens to turn children over to law enforcement to avoid educating them should alarm and outrage all Oklahomans.” Even the Republican state superintendent of schools called it “utterly shameful.” On Ritze’s Facebook page, where he touts the fact that he is an ordained Southern Baptist deacon, one person posted a comment saying, “You have some nerve posting pics of your grandson while also suggesting your state round up lots of defenseless children. And for what? Oh yes, to close the budget gap you created. Very Christian of you.”
We say NO! Never again! These vicious monsters must be stopped now. The Trump/Pence fascist regime must be driven out before they can consolidate a true nightmare for humanity.
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