Acting ICE Director Mark Morgan called New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s comparison of migrant detention facilities to concentration camps “reckless” and “flat out wrong” during a Tuesday interview with Hill.TV.
WATCH:
NEW: Acting @ICEgov Director Mark Morgan blasts @AOC comparison of migrant detention centers to concentration camps: “Its completely inappropriate, it’s reckless, it’s irresponsible, it’s misinformed, and it’s flat out wrong” https://t.co/AXuIN72jZ9 pic.twitter.com/B6pfc43E5C
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) June 18, 2019
“It’s completely inappropriate, it’s reckless, it’s irresponsible, it’s misinformed, and it’s flat out wrong,” Morgan told Hill.TV’s Saagar Enjeti, responding to a question about Ocasio-Cortez’s comments.
“I urge people, there is so much oversight in these facilities,” he continued. “We have IG report after IG report. We have non-governmental organizations, NGOs, that are constantly providing double check on that, which we should. I encourage the check and balance, I encourage inspections, and I feel very satisfied that if you go to these facilities, whether its a border patrol facility or an HHS facility or an ICE facility, that they will be safe and adequate conditions to detain individuals.”
Morgan did make “one exception” for border patrol facilities that are “designed for adults.”
The Democratic Socialist congresswoman accused the government Monday of “running concentration camps on our southern border” in a Monday Instagram Live post.
“The fact that concentrations camps are now an institutionalized practice in the Home of the Free is extraordinarily disturbing and we need to do something about it,” she continued. (RELATED: Auschwitz Museum Reaches Out To MSNBC’s Chris Hayes After He Defends Ocasio-Cortez)
Ocasio-Cortez doubled down after being criticized for her comments, calling her critics “shrieking Republicans.”
“For the shrieking Republicans who don’t know the difference: concentration camps are not the same as death camps,” she tweeted. “Concentration camps are considered by experts as ‘the mass detention of civilians without trial.’ And that’s exactly what this administration is doing.”
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
Then, she doubled down again, responding to Enjeti’s post Tuesday by accusing “people who run” what she called “concentration camp systems” of lying.
Ah yes, because history knows that people who run concentration camp systems almost always acknowledge to the public what they’re doing. https://t.co/HOX7HGNIrm
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 18, 2019