- Rep. Maxwell Frost claims Trump is trying to “ethnically cleanse” America of certain immigrants during an MSNBC interview.
- Frost compares a Florida detention center to an “internment camp,” saying he saw “people who looked exactly like me” in cages.
- He alleges immigration enforcement targets Latinos and Haitians, not Europeans who overstay visas.
Representative Maxwell Frost (D-FL) turned up the drama Monday night on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” accusing President Donald Trump of trying to “ethnically cleanse this country of certain types of immigrants.”
Frost recounted his visit to the Everglades detention center, painting a picture that sounds straight out of a Hollywood script. “When I went in and we were standing at that door looking at the cages, looking at the hundreds of men in there, I saw myself in those cages,” Frost said. “I saw people who were my age, people who looked exactly like me… I’m one of the only people that looks like me and that’s my age that is going to actually walk out of this place without being deported.”
The Florida Democrat doubled down, claiming, “They want more people behind bars. They want to incarcerate more people, and they want to ethnically cleanse this country of certain types of immigrants.” He even suggested enforcement is selective: “Because when I was in that internment camp in the Everglades, I didn’t see any Europeans who overstayed their visa. I saw nothing but Latino men and Haitian men.”
Here’s the reality: calling legal detention centers “internment camps” is peak political theater. America has immigration laws for a reason, and enforcing them isn’t “ethnic cleansing”—it’s protecting our borders. Maybe instead of fearmongering on cable news, Congress should focus on securing the border so fewer people end up in those detention centers in the first place.