There’s money in it
Donald Trump’s incoming administration brass wants it made clear: The president-elect is not planning to build a brand new network of “camps” to house the myriad undocumented immigrants who Trump has vowed to round up in what he claims will be “the largest deportation” operation in the “history of our country.”
To be sure, Trump’s migrant expulsion program, if he were to follow through with his plans to deport millions, would require massive new camps — something that Trump’s top policy-hand has explicitly told reporters. But openly describing these camps as “camps” invites supremely negative historical comparisons.
Some top Trump advisers get so annoyed when the media refers to his publicly detailed immigration-crackdown plans as including “camps” that they’ve cautioned the president-elect’s allies and surrogates to stop using the word “camps” during the current presidential transition, according to two sources familiar with the situation.
“I have received some guidance to avoid terms, like ‘camps,’ that can be twisted and used against the president, yes,” says one close Trump ally. “Apparently some people think it makes us look like Nazis.”
The article goes on to show that Stephen Miller and Trump himself have often referred to the need to build “camps.” Trump says he doesn’t think they’ll have to build too many though because they’ll be “moving them out” so fast. No need for due process or anything like that.
Anyway, yes there will be camps. I noted this last week:
As the government and law enforcement brace for the sweeping ramifications of President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to deport what could be millions of undocumented immigrants from the United States, another stakeholder appears poised to cash in on the complex logistics that would be required: the powerful private prison industry.
On corporate earnings calls since Election Day, executives at the country’s top private prison firms have embraced Trump’s immigration agenda as a potential windfall if the federal government requires contractors to construct new detention facilities and provide additional support services for the unprecedented effort.
Geo Group founder George Zoley, whose company is the country’s largest private prison operator, told investors last week that Trump’s deportation plans represent a “potential sea change” for the industry.
See, there’s always a silver lining. Ain’t America grand?
But there’s no need to call them camps. That’s Nazi. Maybe we could just call them AirB&Bs. So much nicer.