Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D., Ill.) compared immigration detention facilities to concentration camps in an appearance on Hill.TV Wednesday.
"These are like concentration camps, and I'm not afraid to use that word because we are concentrating people, children in one place in horrible, unacceptable conditions," Schakowsky said.
Schakowsky echoed the claim made by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), who told her viewers on Instagram, "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." Schakowsky did not mention Ocasio-Cortez by name in her comments.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has rejected comparisons between the situation on the border and the Holocaust. Presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders (D., Vt.) and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D.) have also distanced themselves from the comparison. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was the latest prominent Democrat to denounce the comparison, calling it "wholly inappropriate".
"There is no comparison to the Holocaust, period, and to draw an equivalency suggests one does not understand what happened in the Holocaust," Cuomo said.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) agreed with Ocasio-Cortez, stating, "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."