Massachusetts: Test Case for Complacency?

I am aware that there is already a thread on ATS about this subject, however it is presented as a news item and I am here with some speculation, thus I chose to post this in Skunk Works. If the mods feel otherwise, I am sure they will go ahead and move it or close it.

The news thread is found here:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I am not sure how many of you are aware of this case and just how controversial it is here in Massachusetts, but it is the talk of the town so to speak. Some of our local CBS outlet's stories include this recent one:

wbztv.com...

EXCERPT:[QUOTE]
"New Bedford Immigrant Community Outraged Over Raid...
Tuesday's immigration raid has left New Bedford's immigrant community outraged and now it is demanding that detainees and their families be treated fairly....

The illegal immigrants who were arrested were initially transported to Fort Devens, but now, many have been moved again.

"We have confirmed that about 150 have already been sent out of state to Texas," said Audin Sniffen of Catholic Legal Services.

Honduran native Jose Reyes knows several mothers who have been taken from their kids.

"It's no good, because I see too many women have a baby," he said.

Of the 320 people arrested two thirds were women, many with small children."[/QOUTE]


So why am I starting a thread? Because some chatter I have heard over the past 24 hours has gone from simply raising my curiousity, to making the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Bear with me.

It started this past afternoon, March 8th, when I was picking up a relative at a beauty salon. The crowd was about a half dozen elderly women and the one male stylist. As women probably often do at beauty parlors, they were all engaged in one giant conversation, even as some were getting their hair shapooed or mechanically dried. One lady in the waiting area was reading a newspaper and another one of them saw the article on the front page about the immigration arrests and started discussing it. The woman with the paper read a few sentences out loud to the others, and when she got to the part about the prisoners being moved to Fort Devens, the women were all nodding in agreement. A couple of them said things like, "that's right, put those dirty immigrants in concentration camps (my note: those were the exact words I heard), lock 'em up, let real Americans get jobs and better themselves." I was a bit shocked (but hid it) that all of them seemed to be agreeing that it was a good idea.

It does not end there...

I was at an auto parts store looking for something right before closing time. The employees clearly were waiting for me to leave as they both were standing by the cash register talking. My ears caught them talking about the immigration arrests and I started to pay more attention. Just like the elderly women I heard a few hours before, these two middle-aged men were casually using the term "concentration camp" and saying how it was a good idea to round up people who did things that were un-American (paraphrase of what they said), but that these particular immigrants were working stiffs who did not necessarily deserve what happened to them.

The final incident was when I was coming into work later on and one of my co-workers was reading the newspaper. I purposefully asked what he thought of the immigration arrests, and he said that he thought the company's owner(s) should suffer, not the immigrants themselves, but that he had no problem with anyone who tried to take opportunity away from Americans being put in "camps."

I do not care what their ethics are, the mere fact that these people were casually discussing placing people in "concentration camps" as if it was a topic as routine as the weather, got me really worried.

Is this kind of conversation exactly what someone in power wants? Are "they" testing the waters to see what the public reaction is to such a highly-profiled case where people are herded into some kind of camp?

And....what if "they" could learn of the results, of all of the members of the general public who are becoming complacent to the plight of "un-American" people?

I am starting to wonder...

Here in the Bay Area there's news reports of illegal's being rounded up at random locations. In immigrants communities, many mother's are keeping their children home from school for fear of being deported.
Even American citizens are protesting these raids. What's going on? As much as I'm in favor of clamping down on illegal immigration, I hardly think it's fair after our government's condoned it for years, to now terrorize these communities with indiscriminate raids. What could this show possibly be for? This scares me.

Deval wants to give illegal immigrants in state tution. Illegals have more rights than citizens like free health care. I don't think they should be put in concentration camps just deported as quickly as possibel