Workers who are presented as “undocumented” will be taken to the camps. Perhaps they will work in the camps themselves[,… but] more likely they will be offered to American companies[.…] In the simplest version[…], detained people will be offered back to the companies for which they were just working. Their stay in the concentration camp will be presented as a purge or a legalization[…]. Trump has already said that this is the idea, calling it “owner responsibility.”

[…S]lavery is not entirely illegal in the United States. The Thirteenth Amendment allows slavery if only as punishment for a crime. The people described as “undocumented” or “denaturalized” (and other categories sure to be invented soon) are [being] portrayed as criminals.[…]

The government is putting before us the temptation to cooperate in fascist dehumanization on a grand scale. But that does not mean we must do so. This is an area where actions by individuals, by civil society, by the professions, and by companies can be decisive.

The first action is simple. CEOs should now, this summer, this month, next week, sign a pledge not to use labor from concentration camps. It could be as simple as that: “On behalf of my firm I promise not to use labor from concentration camps nor to cooperate with any firm that does.”