Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) said on Friday she does not know why it is controversial for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) to describe immigration detention facilities as concentration camps.
"There are camps, and people are being concentrated. This is very simple. I don't even know why this is a controversial thing for her to say," Omar said. "We have to really truthfully speak about what's taking place, and this is why it's really important for us to abolish ICE and make sure that we have an agency that is accountable to the people, that is dealing with the situation in a humane way."
"There's no way we can allow for kids to be caged in this country and children to be separated from their families, and people being terrorized in their communities. We have to make sure that we are calling it out and I am 100 percent with Alex--," Omar continued, before the video cut off.
Ilhan Omar says that because people are being 'CONCENTRATED" in 'camps" they are therefore 'concentration camps."
...what? pic.twitter.com/irWxGc50Ek
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) June 21, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez said earlier this week that President Donald Trump was running an "authoritarian and fascist presidency" and said the detention system for illegal immigrants was akin to concentration camps, adding "never again," a clear Holocaust reference.
Yad Vashem tweeted at Ocasio-Cortez to learn more about concentration camps.
".@AOC Concentration camps assured a slave labor supply to help in the Nazi war effort, even as the brutality of life inside the camps helped assure the ultimate goal of 'extermination through labor.'"
.@AOC Concentration camps assured a slave labor supply to help in the Nazi war effort, even as the brutality of life inside the camps helped assure the ultimate goal of "extermination through labor."
Learn about concentration camps https://t.co/oBPQsjf6FC#Holocaust #History pic.twitter.com/nmc9As2nlO
— Yad Vashem (@yadvashem) June 19, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez doubled-down, saying she would not apologize.
"I will never apologize for calling these camps what they are," she said. "If that makes you uncomfortable, fight the camps - not the nomenclature."
DHS ripped 1000s of children from their parents & put them in cages w inhumane conditions.
They call their cells 'dog pounds" & 'freezers."
I will never apologize for calling these camps what they are.
If that makes you uncomfortable, fight the camps - not the nomenclature. https://t.co/eJpJWeYiot
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 19, 2019