CNN commentator Angela Rye claimed the United States is headed towards "death camps" for migrants "if our consciences are not quickly pierced" during an appearance on CNN's Cuomo Prime Time on Tuesday.
Rye and conservative CNN commentator Steve Cortes were discussing the detention of migrants crossing the southern border and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D., N.Y.) claim that they are being placed in concentration camps.
"I don't know when we decided that a humanitarian crisis could be defined whether or not someone is carrying a green card or whether or not someone has their papers, but I'm going to tell you this: Before we are American, we are human beings and it is not okay, it is a damn shame what is happening at this border and the fact that you're going to justify it by economics, let me just tell you, there are a whole lot of people making a whole lot of money by having these people in detention centers," Rye began.
"We want to shift the attention as we should off of mass incarceration of black and brown people in this country, but now those monies are being transferred into detaining migrants at the border. It is a crisis, Steve. It is not okay just because they don't have their papers. I hope that at some point you wrestle with your conscience and get to the right side of this because sir you are on the wrong side of history. In 1933, they were concentration camps; in 1941, they were death camps and that is where we are going if our consciences are not quickly pierced," Rye continued.
Earlier in the day, Ocasio-Cortez compared the crisis at the southern border to the Holocaust, claiming the Trump administration was "running concentration camps" and calling the administration a "fascist presidency."
The situation at the border has worsened in recent months.
The border has witnessed an increase in families and unaccompanied children trying to cross the border while drug seizures at the border have also increased over the past decade.
In April, a panel of experts organized by the Department of Homeland Security said the border is in a crisis that demands congressional action. In March, former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson called the situation at the border a "crisis."