I read a lot — more than was healthy — about concentration camps as I was researching my forthcoming book, and so my ears perked when a few of my favorite immigration scholars and analysts were recently questioned (by Kara Swisher) about whether or not people are right to call immigration detention centers in the United States concentration camps.
Austin answered astutely, but I could feel he had a lot more to say, and so roped him into chatting with me about how relevant the term is to today’s US immigration detention system.
We discussed the history of concentration camps, the misleading but critical distinction between civil and criminal detention, and what is commonly called “medical neglect” but I think would be more appropriately termed medical torture.
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And, good news, I have a cover and publication date: How to Close a Camp will be published July 21.
