Ocasio-Cortez compares Central American migrants to Holocaust victims

“Next time you want to compare Holocaust victims to the illegal immigrant caravan members, just don’t,” one tweeter wrote in response to N.Y. Congresswoman-elect Ocasio-Cortez.

By Atara Beck, World Israel News

New York Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez compared migrant caravan members violently attempting to breach the U.S. border with Mexico to Jews fleeing Nazi Europe during the Holocaust.

Over the weekend, hundreds of migrants who had made their way to Mexico from Central America, charged the border. Some “attempted to breach legacy fence infrastructure along the border and sought to harm CBP [Customs & Border Protection] personnel by throwing projectiles at them,” Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement.

“As I have continually stated, DHS [Department of Homeland Security] will not tolerate this type of lawlessness and will not hesitate to shut down ports of entry for security and public safety reasons,” Nielsen said. “We will also seek to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law anyone who destroys federal property, endangers our frontline operators, or violates our nation’s sovereignty.”

The Mexican government described Sunday’s events as “acts of provocation,” adding that it deported 100 migrants the following day.

On Sunday, Ocasio-Cortez  tweeted: “Asking to be considered a refugee & applying for status isn’t a crime. It wasn’t for Jewish families fleeing Germany. It wasn’t for targeted families fleeing Rwanda. It wasn’t for communities fleeing war-torn Syria. And it isn’t for those fleeing violence in Central America,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted late Sunday.”

In response, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) suggested Ocasio-Cortez become better informed.

“I recommend she take a tour of the Holocaust Museum in DC. Might help her better understand the differences between the Holocaust and the caravan in Tijuana,” he tweeted.

The back-and-forth continued, as the Democratic congresswoman replied the next day in a fresh tweet, “This administration has jailed children and violated human rights. Perhaps we should stop pretending that authoritarianism + violence is a historical event instead of a growing force.”

“What if instead of sending 5k troops to the border, we had sent 5k caseworkers to review + process visa applications?” she said in another tweet, this time attacking the Trump administration’s economy policies. “In addition to averting moral crisis, it also would‘ve saved enormous amt of resources. But we don’t talk about the financial recklessness of GOP admins, do we?” she wrote.

Another tweeter, Arthur Schwartz, included a photo of emaciated Holocaust victims alongside one of economic migrants at the U.S.-Mexican border with his comment: “Next time you want to compare Holocaust victims to the illegal immigrant caravan members, just don’t.”

Librarian Michelle Simms, commenting on the violence at the border, tweeted, “Assault is a crime. Take time to consider those being hit with rocks, Americans.”

Cheryl K. Chumley of The Washington Times wrote in her analysis: “Newly elected Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is seeking to fill 13 slots in her soon-to-be congressional office and has sent out an ad for interested applicants to apply. Might I suggest a historian?

“After all, with tweets like the one she just penned, comparing the migrant caravaners to Jews fleeing Nazi Germany, surely someone with solid historical sense could lend a frequent office hand.”

In an interview with PBS‘s Firing Line in July, Ocasio-Cortez slammed Israel’s “occupation of Palestine” and accused the Jewish state of committing a “massacre.” However, when pressed on the issue, she admitted she was “not the expert” on the facts. “I am not the expert on geopolitics on this issue. I just look at things through a human rights lens and I may not use the right words,” she said.