In a recent Instagram message to her followers, the controversial Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez likened the American government’s treatment of migrants at the Texas border to Nazi “concentration camps.” Questioned about this in an interview in Mother Jones, she was unapologetic:
That is exactly what they are: They are concentration camps. I want to talk to the people that are concerned enough with humanity to say that “never again” means something.
I don’t use those words lightly. I don’t use those words to just throw bombs. I use that word because that is what an administration that creates concentration camps is. A presidency that creates concentration camps is fascist, and it’s very difficult to say that because it is very difficult to accept the fact that that’s how bad things happen.
Ocasio-Cortez seems to think that when the border patrol agents place people in detention centers “without trial,” this is something awful. But they are not being indefinitely held “without trial”; they are, rather, being held as they “await trial,” that is, await their turn to a hearing before an immigration judge, which is a very different thing. These refugee shelters exist not to deny them trial, but precisely to ensure that they will remain so as to be given, not denied, their day in court.
A detention center, or refugee shelter (both names are used) is not a Nazi concentration camp. In the Nazi camps, millions of men, women, and children were shot, gassed, tortured, burned alive, starved to death, subject to ghoulish medical experiments by Nazi doctors like Dr. Mengele, or murdered for sport by German soldiers who would throw babies into the air and shoot or impale them before their parents, or would force inmates to fight with each other, with the loser being immediately killed, while the winner had to keep fighting other inmates until he finally lost, and it was his turn to be killed — great fun for the bored German soldiers who witnessed these things. There were so many ways for the Nazi murderers to pass the time! And two million Jews were murdered at Auschwitz alone.
In response to widespread criticism of her statements, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez and her supporters insisted that she was referring “only” to concentration camps and not to death camps.
That in no way justifies her grotesque remark. For most people, all the Nazi camps are known as concentration camps; no distinction matters whether the deaths came at once from the gas chambers, or were the result of starvation-level diets, beatings, slave labor or other mistreatment. Yes, it is true that in the death camps, such as Auschwitz and Treblinka and Belzec, the sole purpose was to carry out the mass murder of Jews as soon as they arrived. No other end was possible. We call Auschwitz both a “death camp” and a “concentration camp”; they both brought death to millions, albeit at different rates and using different means.
In the concentration camps, that in the strict sense would include such as Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, and Buchenwald, prisoners were not sent specifically to be killed, although it was understood that a great many would die, and there was no effort to keep any alive. Many were murdered in those camps. Hundreds of thousands did die, as they were subjected to slave labor, disease, brutal beatings, systematic torture, medical experiments, and starvation-level diets. 55,000 were murdered at Buchenwald; 50,000 at Bergen-Belsen; 42,000 at Dachau, to name only three of the best-known concentration camps. Several hundred thousand died in other such camps.
What about those “concentration camps” that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claims the Trump Administration has built on the Texas border? What are they like?
Not a single person has been shot, gassed, tortured, burned alive, murdered for sport, or used for medical experiments in the temporary detention centers run by ICE on the Texas-Mexico border. Does Ocasio-Cortez not know that? Would she care to adduce a single example of deliberate physical mistreatment, much less murder, of those migrants in the detention centers? There are occasional lapses in the facilities provided, but that is only because of the sudden huge influx of migrants since the beginning of the year that the government has to race to keep up with. Here, for example, is a description of what migrants could expect in Donna, Texas a few months ago:
Thousands of migrant families and children apprehended crossing the U.S. border alone in the Lower Rio Grande Valley will spend their first night in America in a vast air conditioned tent complex with access to showers, hot meals and cots to sleep on.
The massive 40,000-square-foot white vinyl tent erected in less than a month on farm country owned by the federal government about a mile from the Rio Grande was set to open for the first time Thursday to handle what authorities described as a 240 percent increase in apprehensions in the Border Patrol sector anchored by the city McAllen.
According to Border Patrol figures, more than 361,000 migrants were apprehended at the southern border during the six-month period that ended March 31. Of that total, nearly 36,000 were unaccompanied children.
“Sometimes there are over 100, sometimes there are over 200,” said Carmen Qualia, a Border Patrol executive officer who led a tour of the tent in the town of Donna. She was referring to individual apprehensions in the sector that has been taking an average of 1,200 family members and children each day for the past several weeks.
“As you can see, it puts a big strain on our resources,” she added.
Indeed, a similar tent complex called a temporary detention center was also scheduled to open in the El Paso area as existing detention facilities can no longer handle the influx.
While they are there, they’ll be fed and screened for medical needs. They’ll shower in one of the 36 individual stalls — 18 for men and 18 for women — and have access to chemical toilets that will be serviced at least daily.
“They’ll receive a change of clothes, and the clothes they came in will be laundered. They’ll sleep on cushioned cots that measure about two-and-a-half feet by six-and-a-half feet.
“Border Patrol tent shelter in El Paso for immigrants has baby-changing tables, laundry machines, AC…
Goodness. Does that detention center’s facilities, with those laundry machines, changes of clothes, cots with mattresses, baby-changing tables and diapers, the screening for medical needs which are then met — does any of this sound like a “concentration camp,” a veritable Buchenwald or Bergen-Belsen?
Jay says
This Cortez woman is a lying progressive liberal ! She and “her handler” should be expelled from congress and tried for her campaign fraud crimes, her address fraud, her back taxes, etc etc.
I cannot imagine how her behavior is acceptable under any circumstances? Reps Cortez, Omar, and
Tlaib are all traitors , all 3 have committed felonies and should be removed from office immediately. If they were republicans they would all be wearing prison stripes! The liberal progressive double standard is
destructive and must be stopped!! God save us from this madness!
Trump 2020. Our only hope !
??????????
mortimer says
LEGAL DISTINCTIONS ARE VERY IMPORTANT … even if one is an idiot-blabbermouth like AOC. The detainees of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection are in custody because they BROKE THE LAW by illegally crossing the border.
Detainees in a ‘concentration camp’ are detained for political or religious or ethnic reasons, thus violating their human rights.
The detainees of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection are ensured ALL their human rights as humans, but their CIVIL LIBERTIES are RESTRICTED since they are apprehended LAW BREAKERS.
Paul J says
Democrats don’t let facts and legalities get in the way of their warped narrative.
Paul J says
Or the Green/Labor cabal in Australia either for that matter. They sprout the same crap about our off shore detention facilities for Illegal “immigrants”.
RonaldB says
Most likely, any encampment with loads of people including toddlers, is going to give a bad first appearance. These are children whose parents are not such great parents in any case. In the case of unaccompanied minors, the parents literally pushed them across the border, or tossed them on a caravan, or just kicked them out of the house. In the case of children with adults, these are adults who subjected the children to a dangerous, difficult journal across deserts and jungles so the adult could receive public benefits in the honey-pot of America. And a significant number of the children are rent-a-child from the smuggling cartels designed to ensure the admission of their customers.
So, even given the best of facilities, you’re going to have unchanged children running around, dirty diapers tossed to the ground, and a stench. So, when AOC helicopters in for a gander, she can put her immediate reaction on YouTube and Twitter. AOC is not exactly famous for filtering her impulses with rational thinking.
One characteristic of leftists, and Democrats, is they remove the agency of people to accept responsibility for their own actions. If hundreds of thousands of people walk across Mexico to try to get into the golden pot of US welfare using a rehearsed tale of persecution provided by People without Borders, then it is a natural consequence of their actions that they be detained until their fairy stories are brought in front of a magistrate. But, the Democrats respond only to the difficult conditions, without considering the responsibility of the camp dwellers themselves for their situation. I’d say if the border patrol had a fault, it would be in not widely publicizing all the unpleasant aspects of the camps to people in the countries fueling the invasion, like Honduras.
Do not ever confuse Cortez with a humanitarian. As a dedicated socialist, she would happily put opponents of her redistribution programs in concentration camps for re-education. Socialism absolutely cannot exist without coercion.
mortimer says
Good points. AOC would be in favor of real concentration camps for her political opposition. We must never doubt for a second she is a STALINISTA.
Walter Sieruk says
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez only exposes her own terrible lack of understanding of the reality of things when she speaks out about American “concentration camps for migrants.
In addition, a person’s true character which contains his or her values and ideas is always revealed by the associates and friends of the specific individual.
In the case of that radical Left Wing politician, Alexandria Ocasio – Cortez she is a political ally, associate and friend of that Muslim politician Ilhan Omar who likes Sharia law but hates the US Constitution with all its precepts and values and likewise Omar also is anti-Jewish and anti-Israel .
Those two , Cortez and Omar, who have teamed up together are a physical representation of the twenty –first phenomena which is termed “The Red Green Alliance.”
Furthermore, even though, Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez and IIlan Omar have joined their forces to accomplish their goals ,in the end their Red-Green alliance will fail and it will only backfire on them . For example, The Bible in Proverbs 11:21 reveals to its reader that “Though they join forces, the wicked will not go unpunished.” [N.K.J.V.]
RonaldB says
“in the end their Red-Green alliance will fail and it will only backfire on them ”
Precedents in history suggest the alliance would backfire on Cortez, but work in favor of Omar, a dedicated Islamist. In Iran, the communists and the Islamists allied to overthrow the Shah in Iran, but once victory was achieved, the Islamists killed off the communists. Islam does not share power.
I think communists like AOC would die happy knowing they overthrew the social order that raised them.
CogitoErgoSum says
What sort of nightmarish conditions must these “refugees” be fleeing that make thousands upon thousands of them want to risk their lives to come to a country that will put them in a “concentration camp.” How much more awful than the United States these other countries must surely be. And yet, not a word from Ocasio-Cortez about what is going on in these other countries, no daily news reports with interviews of the poor, mistreated refugees recounting to the world the gruesome details of the horrible treatment and terrible living conditions that must currently exist in places like Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and other Central American “hellholes.” If life for the people living in those countries is even worse than what life was like for the Jews of Nazi Germany, if life is so bad for them there that it makes detention in a concentration camp seem preferable, why aren’t Ocasio-Cortez and all the other “progressives” of the world naming these countries and condemning them even more vehemently than the United States?
But no. They are silent about that. Calling out those countries would be disrespectful to their governments and leaders, wouldn’t it? It would also be disrespectful to those who come to the United States carrying and waving the flags of those countries. People like Ocasio-Cortez want only to talk about how awful the U.S. is in its treatment of these poor “refugees” — refugees who still love their countries even though those countries are worse than Nazi Germany.
Ocasio-Cortez and her ilk are shameless liars and hypocrites who want to destroy the United States and turn it into a hellhole just like the ones these “refugees” are fleeing. What a fool she is and what even bigger fools are the people who voted for her and believe her lies.
Mccode says
AOC
Acutely
Occluded
Comprehension
Dennis says
My comment is very simple: why do we even give this women, and people who speak like her, a platform to spew the nonsense that regurgitates from her mouth? I suspect it is all related to the continuing whining from the get Trump collusion group out there and false opinionated reporting of the media. Can they continue this conduct in good conscience? I guess it all involves advertising revenue. SAD!!!
Steve Meikle says
she says she does not use those words lightly – ie “concentration camp” .But she does use words,those and others, lightly ALL THE TIME as she lacks either the intelligence or integrity to use them in any other way.
BTW I come from and live in New Zealand, not the USA. That is to say her foolishness and self righteousness are world famous
gravenimage says
What other junior congressperson would be known all over the world? Any honest actor would be learning the ropes in Congress, not spewing her hatred of her own nation.
Paul J says
Australian politics is full of dipshits like her. As you would no doubt be aware my friend. We almost voted them into power last election. God forbid we elect someone like Ahern, I truly feel sorry you kiwi’s across the big ditch. Keep your chin up cobber and God Bless. The ANZAC’s proved what we can do together. We mustn’t let their legacy die with them.
grego says
Concentration camp? Ya, right. This would have to be the first time in history that people would climb tall fences to get into this ‘concentration’ camp.
Don McKellar says
Yes, they’re climbing fences, risking their lives crossing rivers, paying criminals thousands of dollars — all so they can go to a “concentration camp”.
Older Canadian says
Good one!
Darryl Kerney says
Prisons are more like concentration camps than the detention centers, but both hold people who have violated the law of the nation. Real concentration camps held people who had committed no crimes and were citizens, the detention centers hold people who have tried enter the country illegally and are not citizens,
are these distinctions not obvious enough for the idiotic fools making such a fuss ?
Apparently.
CRUSADER says
Irritating that the settings for both of these staged farces (as symptoms of Leftist lobotomies) were held in Christian church surroundings:
Wayfair Workers Walkout In Boston To Protest Business With Detention Centers
(Trinity Church at Copley Square)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0In-2SGcNo
CRUSADER says
Celebrities Read The Mueller Report
(Riverside Church in New York City)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTSID-_Yshw
tgusa says
Evidently a so called concentration camp in America run by Americans is vastly better than a hell hole of a country in Latin America run by Latin Americans. Cortez (and others) shout; Concentration camps on the US border and then a stampede of people trying to get in ensues. Must be really bad down there.
Do these people think before they speak? Apparently not, next question, do these people even think?
I don’t blame America for any of this I blame Latin America, and of course, democrats.
Angemon says
Alexandria Ocasio Chavez is getting worse and worse. First, growing cauliflower is “colonialist”, now this.
gravenimage says
I had to look up that bit of madness, Angemon.
“Ocasio-Cortez says growing cauliflower in community gardens is ‘colonial'”
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ocasio-cortez-growing-cauliflower-colonial
“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Sunday that growing cauliflower in community gardens is part of the “colonial” attitudes that her Green New Deal will stamp out….”
She is going to force Americans to stop growing cauliflower?
At first I thought she was angry because cauliflower is an old-world vegetable–but it seems she is more angry because some white people like it. Then, the implication that yucca is indigenous to the Bronx is *very* odd. In fact, it would probably be quite difficult to grow yucca in New York.
somehistory says
g
Guess she would also say that growing watermelons and black-eyed peas is “racist.”
Since cauliflower is “white”…perhaps she can cause others to agree with her that growing it shows Whites who grow it are attempting to ‘lord’ it over others.
It is indeed a mixed-up world and some people delight in causing trouble.
gravenimage says
Yes–just nuts.
By the way, I’m white and I like both watermelons and black-eyed peas–I suppose this is “colonial”. In fact, we are having watermelon for desert tonight. Oh, I like cauliflower and yucca as well…
somehistory says
I’m White too…and not feeling any guilt over it. I eat watermelon every day while it’s in season. It is very good for keeping blood pressure normal and tastes delicious when cold and ripe. I like BEP with tomatoes and bacon. My mother made fried chicken that was better than the colonel’s.
We lived on a farm when I was a kid…my dad was a sharecropper for a rich old farmer…and we grew everything one can think of for a Southern dinner table. The old guy hired both Whites and Blacks to work with us when harvesting time came as it was too much for our family to get it all done. We all got along together and I viewed them all as my friends.
I like cauliflower too, but only had it from pickle jars as a child.
Does all this make me a “colonial and a racist”? Only to fools and those trying to make trouble for people like us.
gravenimage says
Thanks, Somehistory.
Tom W Harris says
It’s Popeye the Sailor Man!
b.a. freeman says
using AOC’s terminology, a president with a TLA as his appellation – FDR, who was a commiecrat – set up concentration camps for american citizens who happened not to be caucasian like him, and in addition, did *NOT* set up concentration camps for americans whose ancestry could, like the illegally-arrested citizens, also be traced back to countries with whom we were at war, specifically because they *WERE* caucasian. i don’t hear anybody on the left condemning him.
AOC and most of the commiecrats – those who espouse the most extreme leftism, anyway – use the very same tactics used by the nazis in weimar germany to attack their opponents. they stoop to name-calling, “hate” laws (which are fuzzy enough to be used against anybody who doesn’t toe the Party line), rioting, physical attacks, etc., in order to silence their critics. even without *any* knowledge of their beliefs, that should be a clue to any thinking person that they likely have no argument with which to rebut their opponents. significantly, far fewer people today are able to think critically than in the weimar republic, so i suspect that the end is coming soon.
gravenimage says
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on American “Concentration Camps” for Migrants (Part 1)
………………
Grotesque slander.
Wellington says
Well, look on the bright side. Per AOCthink these “concentration camps” can’t last more than twelve years.
gravenimage says
Good one, Wellington.
“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: ‘The World Is Going to End in 12 Years if We Don’t Address Climate Change’”
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/01/21/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-the-world-is-going-to-end-in-12-years-if-we-dont-address-climate-change/
somehistory says
In some, if not all, of the nazi camps, human waste was put in a hole in the ground. Those enslaved in the camps were made to cover the hole. If one fell in, the guards allowed him/her to drown. This, in addition to, all of the other methods of torture and inhumane treatment listed in the article above.
According to sickhan omar, in support of aoc, they are “concentration camps” because “people are concentrated there.”
I live in a hurricane prone state. When one is about to hit, the city or county where landfall is expected, and those around the area, will set up “centers” where those who cannot leave can go to stay safe from the storm. Because so many in the State are poor, and leaving becomes nearly impossible even for those with cars and money the “centers” become full of people. Hence, there is a “concentration” of people in those centers.
Beds or cots are provided. However, each person is told to bring their own toothbrush, medicines, a small bag of necessary clothing, some food, etc. Everyone is told not to expect the center to provide anything beyond a building in which cots are located for sleeping.
Using the non-reasoning of aoc and omar, hurricane shelters would be “concentration camps.” Only, the people are not allowed to stay after the storm is over, even if their home is gone.
And fools like those who work for Wayfair and are striking because their employer sold bedding to the company supplying the center in Texas, evidently would rather the kids sleep on the floor. Or perhaps, have no place to sleep as they are dragged about the country by their illegal parents or other adults..
Some people talk without knowledge and only with the purpose and goal of causing trouble. They spit words to see them splatter.
LR says
AOC stated nothin’ new…I’ve listened to people for months stating what the U.S. is doing at the border being the same as what the Nazis did. Reagan was a Nazi, Bush was a Nazi, Trump is a Nazi. Anyone who wants decent border control is a Nazi. I won’t let people slide when I am standing there listening to such ridiculousness. All people can do is keep calling out the plain stupidity of such comments.
AOC was in her element and she knew it – she wanted some media attention and got it.
Battle says
tgusa “… do these people even think” and b a freeman “… any thinking person …”
Adding please “Occasional Cortex.”
UNCLE VLADDI says
She has a very small cranium.
Just sayin’!
Jack Cade says
Always Obstinately Clueless.
MJP says
When 2 guys show up with nets in white suits for her it will not be the Good Humor Ice Cream Men
I wonder what kind of low IQ idiot would vote for her
Giacomo Latta says
How many Jews voluntarily walked into the concentration (genocide) camps prepared especially for them? How many neurons does this AOC person have to rub together? I suggest about the same amount. As for the photograph of corpses in the Rio Grande, this is the same trickery that MSM used during the war in Syria to cause Merkel and other idiots to open their borders to anyone and anything. Obviously MSM is losing the ”refugee” (from what?) debate to retry this old trickery.
J_not_a says
Has this dumho ever actually toured one of these so called concentration camps to see first hand the conditions in them? I haven’t seen any evidence to that effect. Blabbing about something she knows nothing about. Surprising? Nope.
OLD GUY says
I got it she fell asleep with her vibrator on high, explains everything her brains have been scrambled.