Rep. Dan Crenshaw directed his ire at fellow freshman lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, calling her “ignorant” for comments she made about the Holocaust and U.S. immigration policy.
“Clearly I need to explain that, in concentration camps, people are unjustly sought out and confined,” the Texas Republican and combat-wounded former Navy SEAL said via Twitter on Tuesday.
“This isn’t what is happening at the border. Migrants are illegally crossing our border. Most are asylum seekers, thus pending trial, so your expert definition doesn’t apply.”
In a video posted to Instagram Monday night, Ocasio-Cortez said the United States was operating concentration camps along the southern border with Mexico.
Clearly I need to explain that, in concentration camps, people are unjustly sought out and confined.
This isn’t what is happening at the border. Migrants are illegally crossing our border. Most are asylum seekers, thus pending trial, so your expert definition doesn’t apply. https://t.co/gE6kaj7jGz
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) June 18, 2019
“This is not hyperbole. It is the conclusion of expert analysis,” she tweeted the next morning. “And for the shrieking Republicans who don’t know the difference: concentration camps are not the same as death camps.”
The self-described socialist lawmaker from New York City explained that concentration camps were considered by experts as “the mass detention of civilians without trial.”
“And that’s exactly what this administration is doing,” she 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
Crenshaw joined several Republican colleagues in criticizing Ocasio-Cortez’s attempt to explain, saying that even mentioning the Holocaust for partisan gain belittled the horrors of the mass extermination of Jews in Europe.
“If you’re worried about conditions at the border, why don’t you do something about it,” Crenshaw asked. “Support (GOP-led) bill securing billions in humanitarian aid?”
