JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After facing two days of criticism from Republican leaders following controversial comments made during a London radio interview, Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan on Friday said she regrets her choice of words in labeling former President Donald Trump‘s immigration plan as a “concentration camp type situation.”
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But Deegan stood by her criticism of the plan, which she called inhumane.
“Anyone who knows me, has listened to me speak, or watched my actions, knows I would never diminish the unique awfulness and horror that was the Holocaust. That was not my intention. I regret that my choice of words may have caused anyone pain,” Deegan said in a statement. “However, I have no regret about calling out the inhumanity of treating immigrants, or any person, as less than human. The inevitable human rights violations that would result from rounding up people for mass deportation is unthinkable and un-American. I work hard every day to build unity in our city and I want the same for our country. Let’s take this opportunity to learn from each other and continue to build a city where everyone is valued, seen and heard.”
On Thursday, a spokeswoman for Trump called for Deegan to resign “in disgrace” following the interview.
“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.”
The backlash was immediate following Deegan’s interview, which aired on Times Radio.
"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
“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.
“The use of the term concentration camp is loaded. You consider that’s completely justified?” the host responded.
“What would we call them? If you’re rounding people up and putting them in camps, what? 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, I think it seems rather inhumane to me,” Deegan said.
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 at first 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 did reach out to Jewish groups for comment on Thursday but they opted not to weigh in because of the holiday Sukkot which began on Wednesday.
