Media overlook Biden’s border detention facilities labeled ‘concentration camps’ during Trump’s presidency
Migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border (Getty Images)
The media has long criticized former President Donald Trump for detaining migrants in facilities that were compared to concentration camps. However, they are now giving President Joe Biden a pass for considering the same approach.
Biden, who was praised by the media for undoing his predecessor’s immigration policies, may soon revive those policies to secure emergency funding for Ukraine in the Senate. One particular policy that stands out is forced detention, where individuals apprehended at the border are held indefinitely for immigration violations. Even Democrats have acknowledged that these policies resemble those implemented under Trump.
But the media’s previous criticism of Trump’s detention facilities is nowhere to be found in reports on the Senate’s negotiations. Instead, they describe it as a “compromise” and “major changes.” Only CNN offers some criticism, noting that Biden’s openness to stricter policies puts him at odds with key allies.
Flashback: The media condemned Trump’s indefinite detentions, calling them concentration camps and criticizing the policy as callous and racist.
‘Delays can lead to death.”
Migrant families and children will likely face more health risks if a new Trump admin plan to hold migrants in detention facilities for longer periods of time goes into effect during flu season, experts and advocates warn.
— NBC News (@NBCNews) August 22, 2019
President Trump’s border policy comes from a “dark heart of cruelty,” says presidential candidate Julian Castro, pointing to overcrowding and abhorrent conditions in detention facilities.
https://t.co/baF7l8qXpN pic.twitter.com/MrgsxnGzsb
— CNN (@CNN) July 4, 2019
“None of those things would be allowed to fly were it America’s prized white children at stake.”
— Rapper Vic Mensa discusses his new music video, which references Trump DHS and migrant children in detention.
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 18, 2019
New York Times, Aug. 21, 2019: “Migrant Families Would Face Indefinite Detention Under New Trump Rule”:
The administration’s goal with the new rule is deterrence, and its message to families fleeing Central America is blunt: Come here and we will lock you up. Critics say it is the latest in a series of policies by President Trump meant to close off the United States from the rest of the world.
Washington Post, July 19, 2019: “How Migrant Detention Became American Policy”:
And why comparisons to concentration camps failed to shut them down.
The Atlantic, July 3, 2019: “A Crime by Any Name”:
The horrors detailed in the press were hard to believe. …
If these acts do not represent animus toward those human beings the president has described as murderers, terrorists, and rapists, whom he declares an infestation, whom he identifies as the enemy by sending the U.S. Army to the border, whose families he has destroyed in a bid to inflict sufficient agony so as to deter future newcomers—if all of this does not make American immigration detention facilities concentration camps, it makes them far too close to the concept for any American to find acceptable.
This is, perhaps, the most daunting element of this entire conversation. If these facilities even vaguely resemble concentration camps, then American society has failed in ways many Americans do not want to contemplate.
ocasio-cortez-concentration-camps-migrants-detention/index.html” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>CNN, June 18, 2019: “Ocasio-Cortez Compares Migrant Detention Facilities to Concentration Camps”:
Ocasio-Cortez also referenced how some migrant children were being held in facilities formerly used to detain Japanese Americans during World War II. Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services, which is tasked with caring for unaccompanied migrant children, said it would use facilities at Fort Sill Army Base in Oklahoma to house minors.
Newsweek, June 20, 2018: “Trump Detention Centers Listed Alongside Nazi Concentration Camps on Wikipedia”:
The Wikipedia entry “List of concentration and internment camps” has seen the addition of the Trump administration’s child detention centers which are being used to house immigrant children. The extensive list includes concentration camps used by the Nazi regime.
MSNBC has yet to call Biden racist:
Elie Mystal on Pres. Trump’s racist tweets: “Racism is actually the policy of this administration. The things we see him doing around immigration; it’s not just targeted at illegal immigrants, it’s targeted at immigrants. It’s targeted at new Americans.
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 22, 2019
And the president likely won’t be on the receiving end of a critical homily this Christmas:
The sermon President Trump heard on Christmas Eve featured a cruel emperor, migrants seeking refuge and ‘the hardest of years”
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 25, 2018
But don’t call it hypocrisy. To the New York Times, Biden’s about-face is simply a reflection of “how drastically the politics of immigration have shifted to the right in the United States.”
It appears the media’s perspective has “shifted” along with it:
Trump’s detention // Biden’s
Do you think this is fair, @CNN? pic.twitter.com/HMyQwFNtos
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) December 19, 2023
In what ways does the media’s silence on Biden’s immigration policies undermine their credibility and make them complicit in the mistreatment of migrants
To offer any coverage directly linking Biden’s policies to concentration camps, but the media’s double standard is apparent. The same detention facilities that were once called ”concentration camps” under Trump are now being referred to as “detention centers” under Biden. The media’s change in language reflects their bias and lack of objectivity when it comes to reporting on immigration issues.
One cannot help but question why the media is giving Biden a pass for the same policies they criticized Trump for. Is it because Biden is a Democrat and therefore receives preferential treatment? Or is it because the media’s goal is to protect Biden and his administration at all costs?
The media’s role is to hold those in power accountable, regardless of their political affiliation. It is their duty to provide accurate and unbiased information to the public. By failing to do so and by giving Biden a pass on his immigration policies, the media is failing in their responsibility to the American people.
Furthermore, the media’s silence on Biden’s policies puts them at odds with their own previous reporting. They cannot ignore the fact that these policies are a continuation of Trump’s approach and that they have the potential to cause harm to migrant families and children. The media’s selective coverage and lack of criticism is not only hypocritical, but it also undermines their credibility and makes them complicit in the mistreatment of migrants.
In order for the media to regain their credibility and fulfill their role as watchdogs of democracy, they must hold Biden and his administration accountable for their immigration policies. They must provide fair and balanced reporting that holds both Democrats and Republicans to the same standard. Only then can the media truly serve the American people and promote transparency and accountability in government.
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