Former Tulsa Police Chief Drew Diamond voiced sharp criticism of the Trump administration’s immigration policies in front of an audience Monday evening at All Souls Unitarian Church.
Diamond, who served over 22 years on the force, blasted the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including the practice of wearing masks to conceal identities.
“The secretary of DHS and the attorney general now say, ‘They have to wear their masks because they are frightened, because they are getting repercussions from what they’re doing.’ Nonsense,” Diamond said.
While there’s no law prohibiting law enforcement from concealing their faces, Diamond argued the practice is unnecessary and dangerous.
"The scary thing now is they’re not accountable and we have to start holding them accountable,” he said.
Diamond also compared the actions of ICE and its detainment of migrants to that of Nazi Germany, showing side-by-side photographs of ICE’s "Alligator Alcatraz" facility in Florida and the Auschwitz/Birkenau death camp in Poland.
“People who don’t like what I’m saying will say, ‘I mean, you’re saying that we’re Nazis and we’re building concentration camps.’ Yes, I am.”
In addition to his police background, Diamond served as the executive director of the Jewish Federation of Tulsa.
Diamond’s talk was organized by the group Good Trouble Tulsa.
