Friday, October 4, 2013

Re-Occurring Deportation Trepidation


            In Naimark’s book Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe we see how effectively the author provides us vivid and clear accounts of the Soviet deportation of the Chechens-Ingush from the North Caucasus and of the Tatars from the Crimea in 1944. In this chapter, as is the case for most of his chapters, he addresses the importance of being able to differentiate ethnic cleansing from genocide, stating that these two activities are categorized through their different objectives. According to Naimark "Genocide is the intentional killing off of part or all of an ethnic, religious or national group; the murder of a people or peoples ... is the objective. The intention of ethnic cleansing is to remove a people and often all traces of them from a concrete territory" (Naimark, 3).
           
            In this particular chapter, Naimark provides background into the 1944 Soviet Deportations, stating that Soviet NKVD special units were specifically trained to do the business of deportation. The chapter also elaborates on the methods used by the Soviets to carry out their mass deportation strategies stating that the NKVD ordered all Chechens and Ingush out of their homelands. No exceptions allowed. Those that refused were brutally shot. That although the NKVD claims that it was a flawless operation with no unnecessary casualties, this forced deportation claimed the lives of “some 3,000 Chechens who perished before being deported. . . roughly 10,000 died from disease, hunger, and cold.” (Naimark, 97) These deaths are mainly attributed to the fact that the rail cars in which they were transported were completely sealed with no food, water, and sanitation. Naimark goes on to state that in the NKVD  “lessons were learned about how to conduct military-like operations against their own people, using surprise and speed as their most valuable weapon to uproot masses of unsuspecting citizens”.
           
            In regards to a real-life example that I feel can be attributed to this reading is todays modern day immigration-raids. Me being Mexican-American and having many immigrant relatives that reside in America, I hear a lot of stories of ICE Officials conducting immigration raids, showing up to immigrant’s home or workplace and ambushing the individual without the necessity of a search warrant or the arrestee’s right to an attorney . Much like the NKVD, without the excessive brutality and inhumaneness, these ICE Officials have to act with speed so as to surprise their ‘prey’, which typically consists of undocumented individuals working to feed and support their families.
           
            On June 29, 2013, an immigrant uncle of mine was arrested during an ICE Raid at a local south-side Chicago flea-market. According to a news article from (http://jakemanlaw.com/ice-raid-sparks-protest-in-chicago/) covering this incidence “ICE insists that the raid conducted was not an immigration raid to scoop up undocumented immigrants . . . and that ICE officials were targeting vendors selling pirated CDs.”. Yet my uncle not being a flea-market vendor much less a pirated CDs vendor was arrested and taken to Cook County Jail. This occurrence often leaves behind a negative lasting impression on community members specifically children, who sometimes witness these militarily trained units, forcibly take their relatives and loved ones in handcuffs. Sadly, this is one of many reoccurring cases where ICE Officials intentionally and forcibly remove people from their homes and families on a day-to-day basis and on a national scale; similar to the NKVD in the deportations of 1944, minus the blatant death-toll and malice. 

More on the recent Chicago Immigration Raid:
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