Who's worse? The average ICE employee/officer or the average "Nazi" soldier/worker?
Let's skip for a moment the people at the top and look at the average person.
The typical "Nazi" (meaning those who participated in the extermination of Jewish people, homosexuals and others) or who were in the organizations involved but did not directly roundup or kill those in the camps, bear the blame for the worst of Nazi activities. These are the worst of the worst as they knew of the atrocities or directly committed them.
Before much of the killing started, these were likely people who hated or resented Jews or others, who followed a charismatic leader who promised to improve their lives and change their being hurt by the "evil" reparations of WW1. Many were probably just plain bigots. Others were caught up in the War, drafted into such organizations or simply chose to join them because it was better than fighting and dying on the front lines.
Once on the inside, they may have realized the horrors of what was happening but were "stuck". If they refused to carry out orders that became more and more inhumane, they themselves might become its victims. Worse, their spouses and families might suffer death or imprisonment or other horrors even if they, themselves, just simply committed suicide to avoid becoming or remaining a participant. It's one thing to refuse if you are the one to suffer than if you saw what would happen to your family if you did so.
But what they did was the worst of the worst. Mass torture, working to death or killing of men, women and children is about as brutal as it gets.
Compare that to our "wonderful" ICE field people and those who work in offices in support positions. What they do cannot be compared to mass murder, as evil as deportations, humiliations, mistreatment, and kidnapping without legal authority or fair treatment of adults and children, is. But then what about their consequences for refusal to participate?
Unlike the original Nazis, there is no real physical danger to them; no retaliation against their families who would not end up in death camps; no beatings for refusal to participate. In fact, the WORST they suffer is the loss of their job and benefits. They could always find another position albeit at lesser pay. They might even be able to join a local police department and remain in law enforcement. There is no need to choose between death for them or death for me; death for them or starvation for my family.
So who is worse? The Nazi who says "Wait, this is wrong! I refuse to participate any longer!" but who realizes the consequences against not only themselves but their loved ones if they do so; or the employees of ICE whose suffering has no comparison at all to that of the Nazi if they use the same words?
The crime of the ICE people is not that of the Nazi mass murderers. But it is far easier for them to say "No" and so, I contend, they are equal in evil, for not doing so. And that goes even for those in HR or vehicle repair or whatever job they do in the Department of Homeland Security.
Just my own opinion.
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