JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A spokeswoman for former President Donald Trump is calling for Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan to resign “in disgrace” after the mayor made controversial comments about Trump’s proposed immigration policy, saying his plan amounts to a “concentration camp type situation.”
"It's a concentration of people that are in a camp."
— Times Radio (@TimesRadio) October 15, 2024
Trump's proposed immigration policies "amounts to" a "concentration camp type situation", says Mayor of Jacksonville, @DonnaDeegan #TimesRadio | @JPonpolitics pic.twitter.com/TC6hPprhoB
“This is the same type of dangerous rhetoric that led to two assassination attempts on President Trump’s life and has divided our country,” Trump Campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “This no-name Mayor should resign in disgrace over this egregious comment. President Trump has the overwhelmingly (sic) support of Florida voters and will Make America Great Again.”
Deegan made the comments during a radio interview in London.
“I would just say that Jacksonville and the United States as a whole, is, 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, but 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 the interview on Times Radio.
Republican leaders in Jacksonville bashed Deegan for her comments.
Sheriff T.K. Waters called the comments “shocking and reckless” and other Republicans in the city council backed him up. Meanwhile, one Democratic councilman called the Republican response “fake outrage.”
When asked about the backlash following the comments on Wednesday evening, Deegan stood firm.
“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? The inevitable human rights abuses that would come are un-American and go against our country’s values,” Deegan said in a statement.
If elected, Trump has pledged to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law that allows the president to deport any noncitizen who is from a country that the U.S. is at war with. During World War I, the act was put into effect and 6,000 German and other foreign nationals were placed in internment camps, according to the National Archives. It also led to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
News4JAX reached out to Deegan’s office but she was not able to speak because she’s still traveling. Her staff has not released any statements on the call for her to step down, but today, News4JAX spoke to local leaders on both sides of the political spectrum.
Members of the Republican party in Duval County sent a release saying her comments were offensive to the Jewish community and that she should apologize.
“Our initial comment was that she should apologize. But instead of apologizing, she doubled down, and she is defending this and this incendiary rhetoric really has to stop. If she’s not going to apologize, if she’s going to double down on this, yeah, she should apolo...she should resign for the good of the city, the country,” said Dean Black, a Republican member of the Florida Legislature representing the state’s 15th House district. “Former President Trump’s immigration policy is not inhumane. I’ll tell you what’s inhumane, inhumane is allowing illegal immigrants to flood across our border, criminals who kill American citizens like Laken Riley, who take over apartment complexes and force the population of those communities to live in terror. That’s inhumane.”
News4JAX also talked with Duval County Democratic Chairman, Daniel Henry who is now speaking in the mayor‘s defense. He points to the broken immigration system and the collapse of Congress’ most recent bipartisan immigration bill.
“I, frankly, think a lot of the criticism that we’re seeing is disingenuous. I think many people understand where Mayor Deegan’s heart was,” Henry said. “We had a true opportunity for us to be able to deal with our broken immigration system, to prevent people like the murderer that killed Lincoln Riley from being able to enter in this country...something that was supported both by Democratic and Republican senators, who were negotiated by some of the most conservative senators in the entire Senate. But President Trump decided that he didn’t want to deal with the issue. He wanted the issue for himself.”
Rep. Black said he has heard concerns about the mayor’s comments from people in the Jewish community, but Henry highlighted the mayor’s support of the Jewish community.
News4JAX did reach out to Jewish groups for comment but they opted not to because of the holiday Sukkot which began on Wednesday.
