Wednesday on CNN’s “New Day,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) reacted to the report that President Donald Trump wants to expand detention centers for immigrants seeking asylum and allow longer detention of migrant families.
Merkley compared the detention centers to Japanese internment camps from World War II, saying that having internment camps all around the country is the goal behind Trump’s move to replace the Flores Settlement Agreement.
“The goal here is to be able to establish internment camps,” Merkley told host Alisyn Camerota. “That is lock up children and their parents through the which could be many years. This has already been known to be deeply traumatic to children and it is a terrible, terrible idea. But that’s exactly what this strategy would do.”
“The idea that if you’re going to solve this by making it harder to put families with sponsors and lock people up, this is World War II Japanese-American family detention camp-style operation,” he added.
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.