District 24 lawmakers criticize Sussex County Education Association over rally language

NEWTON, N.J. (Sussex County) — Three state lawmakers representing New Jersey’s 24th Legislative District are criticizing the Sussex County Education Association for participating in and promoting a rally where organizers compared a proposed immigration detention facility to a “concentration camp.”

State Sen. Parker Space and Assembly members Dawn Fantasia and Michael Inganamort, all Republicans representing parts of Sussex, Morris and Warren counties, said they sent a letter to leaders of the Sussex County Education Association and the New Jersey Education Association expressing concern about the group’s involvement in a recent public rally in Newton.

The rally focused on opposition to a proposed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Roxbury.

In their letter, the lawmakers said they were troubled by messaging at the event that compared modern immigration detention facilities to Holocaust-era concentration camps.

“It is deeply troubling to see an educators’ organization lend its name and institutional credibility to messaging that equates modern American immigration detention facilities with the vile carnage of the Holocaust,” the legislators wrote.

The lawmakers also noted that New Jersey requires Holocaust education in public schools and said such comparisons are particularly concerning given that mandate.

They cited commentary by columnist Fred Snowflack, who wrote Feb. 25 that comparing ICE detention facilities to Nazi concentration camps is inappropriate.

“Nothing in modern history compares to the Holocaust,” Snowflack wrote, adding that such comparisons are “not helpful.”

The lawmakers said the atrocities of the Holocaust should not be used in political activism.