Entertainer George Takei takes up Ocasio-Cortez chant, insists that the US is operating ‘concentration camps’

Longtime entertainer George Takei spoke out in agreement with the controversial remarks made by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in which the freshman lawmaker compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers to concentration camps.

What did he say?

In a Thursday tweet, Takei wrote, "I know what concentration camps are. I was inside two of them, in America."

He added, "And yes, we are operating such camps again."

Takei, 82, spent time during his childhood with his family at the Rowher Relocation Center in Arkansas, which was an internment camp for Japanese-American citizens during World War II.

During an interview about his time in the center, Takei said that he was vividly able to recall his time in Arkansas when he was just 5 years old.

"Childhood is amazing adaptable," he said. "By the time we went to the Rohwer camp in Arkansas, I was [5] years old. The barbed wire fence, the guard tower ... the machine guns, they became a normal part of my landscape.

"I learned to recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag with the sight of a high guard tower and machine guns pointing at us," Takei added. "I was too young to appreciate the irony as I recited the words 'With liberty and justice for all.'"

Takei's remarks coincide with Ocasio-Cortez's remarks about ICE's detention centers along the U.S. southern border.

What did she say?

In an Instagram rant video on Monday, the 29-year-old congresswoman said, "The United States is running concentration camps on our southern border and that is exactly what they are. They are concentration camps,"

She added, "The fact that concentration camps are now an institutionalized practice in the 'Home of the Free' is extraordinarily disturbing and we need to do something about it."