Sacramento, CA – A Holocaust survivor known for speaking to schools about his experiences confronted federal and local officials about immigration arrests.
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Bernard Marks earned loud cheers on Tuesday after he confronted the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Thomas Homan, at a public forum in Sacramento, California.
“When I was a little boy in Poland, for no other reason but for being Jewish, I was hauled off by the Nazis,” Marks said, according to video posted by the Huffington Post. “And for no other reason I was picked up and separated from my family who was exterminated in Auschwitz. And I am a survivor of Auschwitz and Dachau.”
Marks was interrupted by loud cheers, in what the Sacramento Bee described as a room packed with hundreds of people protesting cooperation between local law enforcement and federal officials seeking to arrest and deport undocumented workers convicted of crimes.
Convening the forum was Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones, a backer of Donald Trump, according to the Bee, and Homan.
“I spent five and a half years in concentration camps, for one reason and one reason only: Because we picked on people,” Marks continued after the cheers. “And you, as the sheriff, who we elected as sheriff of this county, we did not elect you for sheriff of Washington, D.C. It’s about time you side with the people here.”
Marks challenged claims by Homan and Jones that they solely went after convicted criminals, noting that California state courts had ordered federal officials to keep away from courthouses, where there have been reports of arrests of non-criminals.
“Don’t tell me that this is a lie,” Marks said. “We stand up here, Mr. Jones, don’t forget. History is not on your side.”
Marks sat down to another eruption of applause and cheers.
In response, Homan said his agents only arrest convicted criminals at courthouses and leave alone witnesses and victims.
Trump administration officials have said that the main goal of the sweeps is to arrest convicted criminals, but they have also said they will not instruct ICE agents not to arrest non-criminals.
Marks, 87, is known in the region for the talks he gives at schools and other venues about his Holocaust experience.
Also attending the meeting was Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who is Jewish. Steinberg has taken a lead in the movement of sanctuary cities, which use legal means to keep federal officials from arresting undocumented immigrants. Trump has said he will cut off federal funds to sanctuary cities.
This individual should not equate the Shoah, with deporting illegal aliens. There is no comparison, and Marks cheapens the victims of the Shoah, by equating 1933-1945, to 2017. Mexico takes a very hard line on illegal aliens in its own country.
Does Marks preach to Mexico, not to deport illegals in its own country?
It’s time to use the correct terminology in this case. Those people who disregard the sovereign law of the USA.and come here,uninvited, are called ”ILLEGAL ALIENS ”and are not entitled to anything here. They are uninvited guests that show up at our party and eat and drink,but nobody invited them.
Doesn’t this old senile fool realize that in his own state of California over one third of criminals incarcerated are illegal aliens,accordingly there are over 50,000 illegal murderers robbers and rapist’s in the Cal. prison systems in addition to the tens of thousands of criminals not caught yet .
could anyone explain why this country should tolerate this insanity ?
Anyone opposing the expulsion of illegal criminals from our country is either a leftist America hating traitorous bastard like Hillary,Obama,shmuck schumer and the rest of the traitorous Democrats or is criminally insane.
CHAIM
I am the author of the #1 post. I forgot to write my screen name, and hence, it stated “anonymous”. First of all, I’d like to thank everybody who supported my post. I’m not pleased, though, with our “friend” (#2), who referred to me “as a little boy from Brooklyn”. First of all, I am not a little boy, and I resent him using that phraseology. Secondly, I moved out of Brooklyn, forty five years ago. Mr. Marks of course, has to be respected as a survivor of the Shoah. However, that being said, he had a lot of chutzpah, to equate his suffering during World War Two, with the problem that the USA is facing today, with uninvited “guests” (i.e. illegal aliens). Not only do they overload an overburdened social service system, such as in California, but a good percentage commit heinous crimes against American citizens. The mainstream news media would have everyone believing that “their rate of criminal activity, percentage wide, is less than US citizens”. Friends, that is what is known as bupkis! If illegal aliens are caught, they must be deported. There should be not “path to citizenship” to such lawbreakers. Case closed!
Not too many stood up against adolf. The fact that this man, now an American citizen is standing up to the New Fuhrer is fantastic. Herr Trumpf promised mass detentions, arrests and deportations and now his ICE-GESTAPO is carrying them out. The alt-yidden learned NOTHING from the Churban.
I agree with #2 .
A generic reply to the posts here. As a democracy, everyone can trash the President as much as they want. Otherwise, it is not a democracy in a meaningful sense. However, using stupid arguments to prevent a tragedy will often actually cause the tragedy instead. As example, equating true refugees, such as Holocaust survivors, with economic refugees (such as Mexicans) obfuscates reality to the point that true refugees will simply not be recognized as such. Thus under Obama warped logic, the persecuted Christians in Syria (Jews had left the country by 2001), who comprised some 10% of the population in 2011, were given sanctuary at a rate of 1% of total Syrian refugees. While I may not be a Holocaust survivor, both my parents were and I personally am a refugee from Communist persecution. No way even Communist persecution should be downgraded to equate with Mexican economic refugees.