Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused U.S. immigration officials of running “concentration camps” on the U.S. southern border.
Ocasio-Cortez spoke to her followers on Instagram in another one of her live, unscripted videos on Monday evening. The New York Democrat said current U.S. immigration policy rivals the Nazi’s treatment of Jews and other prisoners in World War II.
“The United States is running concentration camps on our southern border, and that is exactly what they are. They are concentration camps,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“I want to talk to the people that are concerned enough with humanity that ‘Never Again’ means something,” Ocasio-Cortez continued, referencing the slogan adopted after the Holocaust. “The fact that concentration camps are now an institutionalized practice in the home of the free is extraordinarily disturbing and we need to do something about it.”
“This is a crisis on if American will remain America … Or if we are losing to an authoritarian and fascist presidency,” Ocasio-Cortez said, referring to President Trump. “I don’t use those words lightly. I don’t use those words to just throw bombs. I use that word because that is what an administration that creates concentration camps is.”
The Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C., was built to document the brutality of the Nazi regime during World War II. When reached for comment on Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks, the museum responded with a recent essay titled, “Why Holocaust Analogies Are Dangerous.”
“Careless Holocaust analogies may demonize, demean, and intimidate their targets. But there is a cost for all of us because they distract from the real issues challenging our society, because they shut down productive, thoughtful discourse. At a time when our country needs dialogue more than ever, it is especially dangerous to exploit the memory of the Holocaust as a rhetorical cudgel. We owe the survivors more than that. And we owe ourselves more than that,” the essay, written by Holocaust historian Edna Friedberg, concludes.
Ocasio-Cortez doubled-down on her comments and comparison Tuesday morning, citing an Esquire article on the history of concentration camps.
“This administration has established concentration camps on the southern border of the United States for immigrants, where they are being brutalized with dehumanizing conditions and dying,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
This administration has established concentration camps on the southern border of the United States for immigrants, where they are being brutalized with dehumanizing conditions and dying.
This is not hyperbole. It is the conclusion of expert analysis ⬇️https://t.co/2dWHxb7UuL
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 18, 2019
Hours later, Ocasio-Cortez appeared to walk back her comparison to World War II.
“And for the shrieking Republicans who don’t know the difference: concentration camps are not the same as death camps. Concentration camps are considered by experts as ‘the mass detention of civilians without trial.’ And that’s exactly what this administration is doing,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.
And for the shrieking Republicans who don’t know the difference: concentration camps are not the same as death camps.
Concentration camps are considered by experts as “the mass detention of civilians without trial.”
And that’s exactly what this administration is doing.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 18, 2019
Mike Brest contributed to this report.
