2020 Democrat Marianne Williamson: Trump’s ICE raids ‘no different’ than what Jews faced in Nazi Germany

Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson on Tuesday said that the announcement by President Trump this week that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will begin mass deportations is “no different” than when Jews faced deportation in 1930s Nazi Germany.

Williamson was speaking at Southern New Hampshire University and said that, as a Jew, she was taught to say “never again” in reference to the Holocaust.

{mosads}“It’s happening again,” the candidate said as the crowd applauded. “There are some people who would say to me, ‘now Ms. Williamson, I think this Jewish analogy, you’ve really gone too far there. This is not the same situation at all.’ ”

“But ladies and gentlemen, some of those people will be deported to places so dangerous that it actually is no different,” she added.

The best-selling author told Vice News that she is cautious about comparing the Trump administration to the Nazi regime that murdered millions of Jews, but decried the president’s tweet about deportations. 

“[Trump is] announcing it, he’s celebrating it like it’s something to be proud of,” she said of Trump’s tweet. “I don’t know about you, but I have visited the Anne Frank House. I’ve been to those places where people hid Jews in the basement. When I think of the fear that some people are going through right now after the president made that announcement, you know, where are they going to go?”

“ ‘Never again’ is never supposed to mean ‘never again to us.’ It’s supposed to mean ‘never again, period,’ ” Williamson continued.

She acknowledged that immigrants deported from the U.S. are not being sent to gas chambers like many Jews who were deported during the Holocaust, but warned that did not mean that they will not be facing violence.

“However, when we really allow ourselves to consider where they are going, to some of them they will be returned to almost certain violence and deep injustice,” she concluded.

Acting ICE Director Mark Morgan on Wednesday said that the agency will target those immigrants who have had removal orders, including families. 

“It’s straightforward: if you’re here illegally, then you should be removed and in this case, that includes families,” Morgan said, adding that the families have had due process.

A White House spokesperson noted in a statement to The Hill that there are “more than 1 million illegal aliens who have been issued final deportation orders by federal judges yet remain at large in the country.” 

“Enforcing these final judicial orders is a top priority for Immigration and Customs Enforcement — willful defiance of our laws, and the defrauding of the American People with fraudulent asylum claims, will not be tolerated,” the spokesperson added.

Williamson’s comments come as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), has faced massive backlash this week for comparing the Trump administration’s migrant detention centers along the border to concentration camps.

The rising progressive star has rejected calls to apologize for her controversial comments.

“DHS ripped 1000s of children from their parents & put them in cages w inhumane conditions. They call their cells ‘dog pounds’ & ‘freezers,’ ” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Wednesday, referring to the Department of Homeland Security.

“I will never apologize for calling these camps what they are. If that makes you uncomfortable, fight the camps – not the nomenclature,” she added.