Teachers union doubles down on ICE center “concentration camp” claims despite backlash

🔴 A planned Roxbury ICE detention center is compared to a "concentration camp."

🔴 Republican lawmakers argue the term minimizes the Holocaust, while

🔴 Sussex County teachers union leaders claim the description is "academically mainstream."

ROXBURY — New Jersey Republican lawmakers are rebuking a teachers union over a social media post comparing immigrant detention centers to concentration camps, and the teachers aren't backing down.

It comes as Roxbury residents are resisting Homeland Security's plans to build an ICE detention center in the Morris County town. Local Republicans have also expressed opposition, citing infrastructure concerns.

Proposed ICE detention center sparks Roxbury controversy

The controversial post was made by New Jersey 50501. They're planning a No Kings protest in Newton on March 28 against the planned Roxbury facility. Located in Sussex County, Newton is about a 30-minute drive from Roxbury.

"This is a critical moment for our community to show up and speak out, especially with DHS trying to build a concentration camp in Roxbury," the New Jersey 50501 said on Instagram.

The post said the protest was in partnership with the Sussex County Education Association, and the teachers union was tagged.

NJ Republicans slam "concentration camp" comparison

On Wednesday, a group of Republican state lawmakers from Sussex County sent a letter to the SCEA. The lawmakers included Sen. Parker Space, Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia, and Assemblyman Michael Inganamort.

They said the use of the term "concentration camp" was more than just over the top; it specifically invoked imagery of Nazi death camps that murdered 6 million Jews and millions of other people.

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The lawmakers wrote that the term's use was especially upsetting because state law requires that students learn about the Holocaust in New Jersey schools, in classes that these teachers lead. They're asking the teachers union not to "participate in messaging" that uses the Holocaust.

Teachers union defends use, denies invoking the Holocaust

But the Sussex County Education Association is not backing down. President Angela DeLuca said that while the teachers union did not write the post, the use of the term concentration camp was appropriate and accurate.

"In July 2019, more than 400 scholars specializing in the Holocaust and genocide published an open letter in the New York Review of Books affirming that characterizing DHS detention facilities as concentration camps is historically grounded and academically mainstream," DeLuca said in a response letter.

DeLuca said the use of "concentration camp" was not meant to invoke the Holocaust, and did not reference a genocide.

The term first appeared in the late 19th century, when the Spanish military put civilians in Cuba into camps. According to the Library of Congress, around 30% of detainees — hundreds of thousands of people — unintentionally died in the camps due to a lack of food, medicine, and sanitation.

She cited the Merriam-Webster definition of a concentration camp, which is "a place where large numbers of people (such as prisoners of war, political prisoners, refugees, or the members of an ethnic or religious minority) are detained or confined under armed guard."

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Debate over Holocaust history and modern detention

DeLuca, though, omitted the rest of the definition, which is that the term is used "especially in reference to camps created by the Nazis in World War II."

Additionally, anti-ICE activists haven't used the term concentration camp in isolation and frequently invoke the Nazi atrocities. Demonstrators at No Kings rallies regularly carry signs that describe President Trump and his supporters as "fascists" and "Nazis."

During a recent Roxbury public meeting, less than two weeks ago, several anti-ICE activists compared immigration detention facilities to the infamous Nazi death camps Auschwitz-Birkenau and Dachau. It's estimated that more than 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were exterminated at Auschwitz alone.

One speaker read off letters from ICE detention facilities and Dachau victims, to compare their similarities. A video of her comments was posted in the New Jersey 50501 Facebook group.

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