Democratic presidential hopeful Julián Castro said that he agrees with “the sentiment” behind Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) remarks likening detention facilities at the border to “concentration camps.”
“I understand that there is a significance to that term,” Castro said on CNN, referring to concentration camps. “But I agree with the sentiment behind what she said, which is that we can’t take this as normal. This is cruelty for these children.” {mosads}
“We’ve had folks who study these things say that these children, a lot of these children, these people are going to be affected for their whole lifetime and so we can’t write it off,” the former Housing and Urban Development secretary added.
“I think we should focus on what she was trying to say, which is we need to end this and end it now,” he said.
Castro has called for the decriminalization of border crossings in his immigration plan.
Ocasio-Cortez called the detention facilities operated by the Trump administration “concentration camps” in an Instagram Live video on Monday night, sparking backlash from the right.
“The U.S. is running concentration camps on our southern border, and that is exactly what they are,” said the New York Democrat. “If that doesn’t bother you … I want to talk to the people that are concerned enough with humanity to say that ‘never again’ means something.”
Republicans, including the third-ranking House Republican, Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), accused her of diminishing the significance of the Holocaust with her comments.
“Please @AOC do us all a favor and spend just a few minutes learning some actual history. 6 million Jews were exterminated in the Holocaust. You demean their memory and disgrace yourself with comments like this,” Cheney tweeted.
Castro is among two dozen people vying for the Democratic Party’s 2020 nomination.