Years ago, I had a chilling jolt when I found myself debating an acquaintance ("friend" is too strong a word) about the Death Penalty. He was for it and I was against it…and I remember thinking that he was a bit too enthusiastic for it and that I was not as unenthusiastically against it as he was enthusiastically for it.
We finally reached the stage where I played the last card I had in my hand…the one which common sense would tell you should make even the fiercest advocate of the Death Penalty a little uncomfortable. I said something like, "And there's way too much evidence that this country has sometimes erred and executed innocent people. Surely you're not in favor of that."
Usually, the response to that was outright denial — "No, no innocent person has ever been executed" — which even then was impossible to believe given the number of last-minute exonerations. These days, it's pretty much a proven fact due to DNA testing. My jolt of the chilling variety came when he replied, "I don't give a fuck!"
I said, "You do realize that when an innocent person is executed for a murder, that means they close the case, stop investigating and the real killer has gotten away with it? In fact, then The State has a compelling interest in not locating and arresting the killer." To this he didn't give another one of those things he didn't give a moment earlier. He thought it was a great deterrent to crime that The State periodically executes people for committing crimes. He felt they should execute more people even for lesser crimes than murder. If the people turn out to be innocent, so what? It's still a deterrent.
I don't recall precisely where the debate went after that. I think I pointed out that though his main issues were his distrust of Big Government and his belief in rampant government incompetence, he was fine with government incompetence killing innocent people. Or maybe I was so stunned by what he'd said before that I couldn't get that out. I do know that the talk ended without either of us changing our minds one millimeter about the Death Penalty.
I'm not bringing this up to argue about the Death Penalty. That's one of those quaint retro issues we never seem to have time for anymore. I just lately have been reminded of that discussion as I see people on the news cheering on the idea of the government going all Gestapo on us in the service of deporting people who are even vaguely suspected to be in this country illegally. Too many of those who support ICE don't seem to give that same fuck if innocent people are detained and/or deported…and once someone is deported, they don't want to hear that maybe it was a mistake, even if the deporters admit it. Just so long as the people who have their lives ruined aren't white.
You could maybe (maybe!) convince me that deporting "illegals" is the right thing to do. It's not like the current administration is the first one to do it. I'm pretty sure that you could never convince me it's right to do it in a sloppy, sometimes-inaccurate manner ignoring the part of the U.S. Constitution that says it must be done with Due Process…or that it doesn't matter if innocent people have their lives and families destroyed along the way.
And you certainly could never convince me it's okay to do deportations or lock-ups just because you think they'll help your party win elections.