JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan said during an appearance on Times Radio in London that former President Donald Trump's immigration policy would amount to creating "concentration camps" for holding undocumented immigrants.
"To put people in what would really amount to a concentration camp type situation to round them out of the country doesn't seem to me to be a very American thing to do," Deegan said in a clip of the interview posted Tuesday by Times Radio.
Brian Hughes, a senior political adviser for the Trump campaign, said Wednesday that Deegan's comments are "horrendously irresponsible for an elected official." Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters and City Council member Ron Salem denounced Deegan's use of the term "concentration camp" because of its connection to Nazi death camps.
"Words matter," Salem said. "In my home and all over the globe, the phrase 'concentration camp' has one meaning" that stands for "some of the darkest days in our world's history."
"Comparing illegal immigration policies to the mass annihilation of our Jewish brothers and sisters is grossly inappropriate and should be apologized for," Salem said.
Waters said the nation and Jacksonville have suffered from criminals and fentanyl that have come across the border and Trump will secure it. He said Deegan's comments are "shocking and reckless" by equating "a commonsense immigration policy with one of the most horrific atrocities of the 20th Century."
"The people of Jacksonville expect more from our mayor than knee-jerk responses about President Trump's policies," Waters said. "It is downright shameful."
As Deegan faced criticism Wednesday, she restated her opposition to Trump's plan but didn't use the word "concentration camp."
“When you flat out call a group of human beings animals and say they are poisoning the blood of our country, then promise to round them up in detention camps, what would lead anyone to believe they’d be treated humanely?" Deegan said in a statement. "The inevitable human rights abuses that would come are un-American and go against our country’s values.”
During the Times Radio interview with Deegan, host John Pienaar said use of the term concentration camp "is loaded. You consider that completely justified?"
"What would we call them?" Deegan said. "If you're rounding people up and putting them in camps, what would we call those? It's a concentration of people that are in a camp. I'm not suggesting anything beyond that, but I just think it seems rather inhumane to me."
Trump announced a new plan last Friday called "Operation Aurora" that would invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 that authorizes a president to relocate, arrest or deport anyone older than 14 who comes from a country that is at war with the United States, according to a USA Today report on the plan.
President Woodrow Wilson used it during World War I to put 6,000 German and other nationals in internment camps and President Franklin Roosevelt used the act against Japanese, German and Italian nationals during World War II when Japanese nationals were put in interment camps. Foreign nationals from all three countries had to register with the government.
Hughes said a "wave of drugs and illegal migrant crime are plaguing cities all across the nation" and Trump wants "legal immigration that ensures people come in the right way and with love for our nation."
He said Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party nominee, "and her dangerously liberal apologists want open borders that permit unvetted criminals and terrorists to kill and threaten Americans. The mayor's comments on the common sense policies of President Trump are outrageous, dishonest and horrendously irresponsible for an elected official."
Waters said Harris has "allowed a wide-open border and millions of illegal crossings" that have brought violent criminals and deadly fentanyl into the country. Waters said the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office has seized almost 15 kilograms of fentanyl this year and in the time since Harris has been vice president, the sheriff's office has responded to 970 fentanyl-related deaths.
Waters, a Republican, is supporting Trump in the presidential race. Deegan, a Democrat, is backing Harris.
University of North Florida political science professor Michael Binder said "concentration camps" isn't the right word to describe Trump's plan.
"Trump isn't suggesting that we put people on trains and then send them to their deaths," Binder said. "But certainly internment camp wouldn't be the worst description if you want to harken back to World War II language."
Pienaar said in the Times Radio interview that opinion polls suggest "most Americans do support mass deportations" and that would be the case as well in Jacksonville. Deegan said she hasn't seen any polls showing that in Jacksonville.
"I'm sure there would be some people that would probably be for that," Deegan said. "I would just say that Jacksonville and the United States as a whole, we are a community and a nation of immigrants. And I would hope that people would say yes, we absolutely must fix the broken immigration system. Let's pass a tough border law."
Binder said he hasn't seen any public opinion polls assessing Jacksonville resident's views on mass deportations.
Deegan is in London on a trade mission for Jacksonville elected and business leaders to get more jobs and investment from the United Kingdom. Her appearance on Times Radio was part of the publicity tour to raise awareness of Jacksonville.
