When immigration detention becomes a system of concentration: Lessons from research on 150 historical cases

Photo: President Donald Trump participates in a walking tour of the immigration detention center nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz”, Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Ochopee, Florida. Photo credit: Official White House photo by Daniel Torok via Flickr. US government work. Article by Alex Braithwaite and Rachel D. Van Nostrand. The Conversation – May 1, 2026.

The phrase “concentration camp” is freighted with dark historical meaning. Most people hear it and instinctively think of concentration camps used by the Nazis to exterminate Jews and other minority populations during the Holocaust. But the use and name of concentration camps originated far earlier. In the late 1800s, Spanish military officials used concentration camps – reconcentrados – during their 1896–97 Cuban campaign to isolate civilians from rebels, resulting in widespread death and disease. […]

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