MS NOW host Rachel Maddow suggested that President Donald Trump might try to repurpose immigration detention centers to imprison “the rest of us” during an appearance on “The Daily Show” Monday.
Host Jon Stewart and Maddow discussed the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) decision to cancel plans to build a 10,000-detainee immigration center in a commercial warehouse in Social Circle, Georgia, after the proposal faced local opposition.
“Social circle stood up for itself,” Maddow said. “You know, people all over the country where Trump wanted to put these mega prisons, these were huge warehouses to hold people by the thousands. Places that would hold five, six, seven, ten, 14,000 people, all without trial, held indefinitely.”
Stewart argued that those detained for immigration violations were being held “for things that are generally considered in our society, civil issues. These are not the worst of the worst.
“These are people who overstayed a student visa or are here on a green card but got a parking ticket, like ticky-tack s— that normally would be treated civilly,” he said.
Maddow acknowledged that other scenarios were possible but suggested that concerns about Trump’s new detention centers should extend beyond immigrant advocates.
“No, I’m sorry, with a president like this, if you give him seven to ten prisons around the country that hold 10,000 people each, where he can hold people without trial, without access to lawyers, indefinitely, you think he’s only going to leave immigrants in there?” she asked.
“I just don’t,” Maddow concluded. “I think that what they first do to immigrants, they want to do to the rest of us.”
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White House spokesman Davis Ingle told Fox News Digital, “Jon Stewart is a talentless hack who clearly suffers from a severe and debilitating disease known as Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain and ruined his life to the point he has to compensate for his embarrassing inadequacies.”
Elizabeth Pipko, former Republican National Committee (RNC) national spokesperson, said it was “amazing how so many on the left have simply decided they can conflate immigrants with illegal immigrants and hope nobody notices.”
“There is a difference. Immigrants came to this country legally, built lives here and became proud American citizens,” Pipko said. “They are not targets for deportation or arrest by immigration officers. Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart both know that.
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“This is an attempt to go viral and to push a political narrative against a president she doesn’t like, regardless of who suffers along the way. It’s selfish and evil, and, worst of all, she knows it but does it anyway,” she added.