When the reality of conditions of the immigration detention facilities in the Southwest was exposed, many Americans, including myself, were horrified. Children sleeping on concrete, children denied basic necessities like soap and toothpaste, children wearing dirty clothes, crammed together in cells meant for far fewer people, and separated from their parents. As we go through our daily, and quite often privileged, lives, in one of the most powerful and wealthiest countries in the world, children are suffering and living in horrible conditions because of the same country that offers us the world we're used to. The truth is shocking, but not altogether unsurprising.

At a minimum, seven children held in these facilities have died in the past year, and this contrasts sharply with 10 years prior, when no children died. The US holds about 11,000 children in its custody, and these are children that are terrified and alone. We don't seem to be doing a very good job of looking after them. A doctor who visited the detention camps called them "torture facilities" as reported by The Atlantic. How can we celebrate our country on the fourth of July when our government holds children in inhumane conditions without remorse?

Some have even called these detention centers "concentration camps," including representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. This comment has received backlash, and AOC particularly, has been under fire for minimizing the horror of the Holocaust by comparing Jewish concentration camps to these detention facilities. While the Holocaust was unspeakably tragic, and even though the extent of these detention facilities may not compare, I think that arguing about when a label like "concentration camp" should be used distracts from the real issues. It does not diminish the suffering of the people who experienced the Holocaust to call out our own government for using similar tactics.

What does "Never Again" stand for, if not to be smart and brave enough to call out cruelty when you see it, and to protect others from even suffering a fraction of the pain suffered by those in concentration camps during the Holocaust. If we do not stand up for the powerless, we are allowing our government to get away with torturing people and children just because they were fleeing the life-threatening conditions of their old homes. The term "concentration camps" is defined by Merriam Webster dictionary as "a place where large numbers of people (such as prisoners of war, political prisoners, refugees, or the members of an ethnic or religious minority) are detained or confined under armed guard." This definition seems to be spot on in the case of the US detention centers.

While it is acknowledged that this term will always be most strongly associated with the persecution of Jews during World War II, I believe that by linking the atrocities being currently carried out by the US government to the atrocities committed by the Nazis, we can raise awareness for the true horror of these detention "facilities" and perhaps inspire people to not be complicit, and to fight back for the people that cannot fight for themselves.