Ray Zardetto is the editor of Military Matters and a board member of the Military Support Alliance of New Jersey. – file
Not surprisingly a political firestorm ignited across the Garden State last week after the Trump Administration announced that Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst was one of the nation’s military installations selected to detain immigrants rounded up during raids by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Almost immediately, both political parties commenced partisan shelling, even though at this stage no concrete plans followed the announcement.
Given this political squabbling is likely to continue, we need to remember that that men and women who serve on the Joint Base are, by demand of their profession, studiously apolitical.
That means they must be left out of these squabbles.
There are legitimate questions about the legality of this initiative by the Trump Administration and there are equally legitimate questions about the scope of responsibility these military installation will take on if this directive goes forward.
But these questions need to be addressed and resolved in Washington D.C., where policy and law is decided – by the White House, by Congress – and if necessary, the courts.
So, when U.S. Representatives Herb Conoway and Donald Norcross visited the Joint Base last Friday in an attempt, they said, to get more details about the Trump Administration’s plans, the two Congressmen put Joint Base leadership in an awkward position.
Military members are there to execute policy, not to evaluate it, comment on it or to be part of any partisan political theater regarding it.
When the meeting ended on Friday, both Congressmen reported they received no additional details, but at least Conoway, in his public statement, did not blame the lack of clarity on the military leadership.
“As of now,” Conaway said after the visit, “no undocumented immigrants are being held on the base. But that has not stopped this administration from keeping Congress and military officials in the dark about their intentions.”
“The fact that the base has not received any information to prepare to house undocumented immigrants shows the chaos and confusion that surrounds the Trump administration,” said Norcross.
Given Representative Conoway’s honorable service in the U.S. Air Force as a medical corps officer (1992-1996) it seems he would have known that the leaders at the Joint Base were not likely to be a well of information that he did not already have.
And the statements of both Congressmen pushed the line too far.
It could have been construed that the military leadership at the Joint Base was party to, and agreed with, the critical observations of the two Congressmen. That would have been a great disservice to these officers.
If it turns out that the Trump Administration goes forward and utilizes the Joint Base for this immigrant detention plan, the base has shown repeatedly it can handle large-scale challenging logistical and humanitarian initiatives with aplomb.
During the conflict in the Balkans in 1999, more than 4,000 refugees were housed at Fort Dix on a moment’s notice (this was when Fort Dix was a separate military installation – the Joint Base was created in 2009).
More recently, the Joint Base became the home for more than 14,000 Afghan refugees who escaped the Taliban in the summer of 2021.
Colonel Wes Adams, then the installation commander at the Joint Base had only a few days’ notice that the first of the Afghan refuges were heading his way and the efforts of his men and women were nothing less than extraordinary.
It was a wonder of planning and logistical execution.
The base utilized existing buildings, temporary housing and tents to house the refugees. They were grouped by families and villages. Everything from mosques to schools to beauty salons were set up and all necessary medical treatment including vaccinations against measles, mumps, rubella and the COVID virus were accomplished.
It is relevant to point out that these visitors came willingly and were excited to start new lives here – most were repatriated over time into towns across the U.S.
Things will likely be different this time around, The detainees are not likely to be happy or content to be confined at a military base, and so security will need to be a critical component of the detainment policy – but in a way that ensures detainees are treated humanely and by the letter of the law.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Let us first see what the details of the plan entail and then both political parties can have at it as they see fit – in other words – duck!
But leave the military out of it.
