Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez once again riled up conservatives on Monday night when she shared an Instagram story in which she likened migrant detention centers to the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Germany. “The United States is running concentration camps on the Southern border, and that is exactly what they are,” she told her followers. “They are concentration camps.”
“I want to talk to the people who are concerned enough with humanity to say that we should not–that ‘never again’ means something,” she continued. “That 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.”
In a video posted to her Instagram last night, @AOC accused the United States of running concentration camps at the southern border.
"And if that doesn't bother you, I don't .. I got — I like — we can have — okay, whatever." pic.twitter.com/ayadY1wh7Y
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) June 18, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez also pointed out that this week immigrant children were moved to the same internment camps where the Japanese were held, and accused Trump of “an authoritarian and fascist presidency.”
Well, that went over about as well as you might imagine with conservatives, who went off screaming that the two were not the same. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) fired back on Twitter, only to be rebuffed by AOC herself.
Hey Rep. Cheney, since you’re so eager to “educate me,” I’m curious:
What do YOU call building mass camps of people being detained without a trial?
How would you dress up DHS’s mass separation of thousands children at the border from their parents? https://t.co/OOfrrfa1Ew
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 18, 2019
On Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez doubled down by tweeting an Esquire link arguing that concentration camps are exactly what is happening at the border.
“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,” she offered. “This is not hyperbole. It is the conclusion of expert analysis.”
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
It would seem that many of the congresswoman’s opponents are missing the bigger picture in her argument, so plenty of people were more than happy to jump in with some much-needed history lessons.
My grandpa’s entire family was murdered in the Holocaust. I’m 100% comfortable with @AOC and anyone else referring to the current situation as concentration camps. The Holocaust didn’t come out of nowhere—it was a slow build, like now. People who understand history know this. https://t.co/agIBjPMNLz
— . (@MarisaKabas) June 18, 2019
Jew here. @AOC’s point is exactly why we say “Never forget.” The Holocaust did not begin with the murder of 6 million Jews. It began with the same dehumanization, deportation, and internment we see today. You, sickeningly, invoke the Holocaust to minimize their suffering. Shame.
— Bess Kalb (@bessbell) June 18, 2019
Ok, Internet. Time to learn the difference between concentration camps and death (“extermination”) camps.
Germany started with concentration camps in 1933.
Death camps started in 1941.
Never again is now. https://t.co/W3rbM5asVc
— Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg (@TheRaDR) June 14, 2019
For those criticizing @AOC’s remarks on U.S. concentration camps, this sworn court declaration from last year is from the director of the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education.
She shares the fears of survivors in this testimony from last year. 🔽 https://t.co/noTYsLr863
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) June 18, 2019
Yes, "concentration camps" is accurate. https://t.co/drSgZ8nDaH
— Radley Balko (@radleybalko) June 18, 2019
If you spend a few minutes learning some actual history, you will find out that concentration camps are different from death camps and have a history that both predates and extends far past the Nazis. https://t.co/Bccy3SaXW0
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 18, 2019
look, the entire point of saying “never again” is that we watch closely for the warning signs of genocide – the racist rhetoric, the violent reprisals, the concentration camps. if you’d rather nitpick, like liz cheney, you are on the side of the nazis, point blank.
— Simon Vozick-Levinson (@simonwilliam) June 18, 2019
https://twitter.com/Bro_Pair/status/1141024659556536321
I’m a historian, a Jew, and an American who only exists because his grandmother escaped Nazi Germany as a teenager in the 1930s. I’m far more offended by my government putting people in concentration camps—as it is doing—than I am by learning from history. https://t.co/0T3IufJD4U
— Jacob Remes (@jacremes) June 18, 2019
Or just to point out how absurd it is that we’re talking about concentration camps in the first place, in the year 2019:
https://twitter.com/hayesdavenport/status/1141019527204917248
Call me crazy but “They’re just putting people in concentration camps, it’s not like they’re exterminating them” is not the standard I want my government held to.
— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) June 18, 2019
https://twitter.com/mikeduncan/status/1141021572976848896
If the debate is “but are they REALLY concentration camps”, that’s a pretty good sign that they’re concentration camps.
— Hend Amry (@LibyaLiberty) June 18, 2019
Just another day in Donald Trump’s America.