Vice President Mike Pence on Monday ripped Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for saying the detention facilities used to house foreigners who try to illegally enter the United States are modern-day “concentration camps,” declaring that her comparison belittles victims of the Holocaust.
Pence never mentioned Cortez by name, but it was clear in his words who he was targeting.
“We must never allow the memory of those lost in the Holocaust to be cheapened as a cliché to advance some left-wing political narrative,” Pence said at the Christians United for Israel’s annual summit in Washington, D.C.
“Sadly, in recent weeks, that’s exactly what some Democrats have done in the national debate,” he said. “Last month, a leading Democrat in Congress actually compared our U.S. Customs and Border Protection detection facilities to concentration camps.”
That, he said, is dead wrong.
“To compare the humane work of the dedicated men and women of Customs and Border Protection with the horrors of the Holocaust is an outrage,” Pence said. “The Nazis took lives. American law enforcement save lives every day.”
In the face of Democrat obstruction: We will secure our border, we will provide compassionate relief to vulnerable families swept up in this crisis, and we will fix this broken immigration system once and for all! pic.twitter.com/EwpMccXAd5
— Vice President Mike Pence Archived (@VP45) July 8, 2019
Cortez has repeatedly called the detention centers “concentration camps” on Twitter and in public remarks.
Meanwhile, one refrain we‘ve heard is that people are overcrowded in CBP concentration camps because the shelters (which are humane places where families can stay together) are full.
So we went to a shelter. They said that wasn’t true at all. Only 150/500 spots were filled. pic.twitter.com/E0yPQ3o7CC
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 1, 2019
But Pence said those comments are nothing more than lies.
“This slander of law enforcement was an insult to the 6 million killed in the Holocaust,” Pence said. “It should be condemned by every American of every political party everywhere.”
Pence did acknowledge that some border facilities are “overcrowded” but said that is solely “because they’re overwhelmed.” In each of the last three months, illegals entering that country have topped 100,000 — and each month has set a new record.
The vice president blamed Democrats for refusing to admit there is a “crisis” at the U.S.-Mexico border. Cortez and other Democrats who had demanded change at the border actually voted against a bill to provide $4.5 billion in emergency funding to improve conditions for illegal aliens, but it passed anyway and was signed by President Trump.
