Texas Democratic House candidate vows to intern Zionists and ex-ICE officers
Maureen Galindo, a Democratic candidate for Texas’s 35th Congressional District, has drawn significant backlash for remarks alleging that she would convert ICE detention centers-specifically the Karnes ICE Detention Center-into internment facilities targeting “American Zionists,” former ICE officers, and other groups she described. In an Instagram post and a subsequent video, she expanded on these claims, including assertions that “MAGA” is intertwined with Zionism and that Zionists are trying to establish “white supremacist religion states,” charges widely criticized as antisemitic.
These statements are part of a broader pattern of increasingly inflammatory comments that critics and other Democrats say echo conspiracy theories about Zionist Jews controlling institutions and running criminal or human-trafficking networks. Even though Galindo insists she is targeting “Zionists” rather than Jews she has acknowledged that most Zionists are Jewish and has framed Jewish “Israeli billionaire Zionists” as influential in politics, media, and banking, including alleged infiltration of local government.
Her comments have been condemned across the political spectrum, including by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who called the rhetoric disgusting and said it should not be in U.S. politics. Some Democrats also suggested Galindo might potentially be receiving behind-the-scenes support from Republicans.
Maureen Galindo, a Democratic candidate for Texas‘s 35th Congressional District, pledged to turn ICE detention facilities into internment camps for “American Zionists and former ICE officers.”
Galindo has ridden a wave of controversial remarks to a runoff election, due to be held next week. The self-proclaimed sex therapist and housing advocate has focused much of her campaign for the redrawn House district on arguably antisemitic conspiracy theories and claims that her opponent, former Bexar County public information officer Johnny Garcia, is part of a criminal network.
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The latest inflammatory remarks were made in a post on Instagram that referred to herself in the third person.
“She’ll turn Karnes ICE Detention Center into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking,” Galindo wrote over the weekend. “It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists.”
She doubled down in a video posted to social media, accusing her critics of being MAGA and saying Zionists were trying to create “white supremacist religion states.” Her video claimed that MAGA was an American incarnation of Zionism, implicitly suggesting that she was aiming to put MAGA supporters in internment camps.
Her comments are the most outlandish in a series of increasingly inflammatory comments targeting Zionist Jews. She’s previously suggested Garcia is running to cover up a Zionist human trafficking ring, that a cabal of mostly Jewish Zionists runs the world, and several other remarks widely seen as antisemitic.
Galindo has insisted her comments are only targeting Zionists, rather than Jews at large, though she has conceded that most Zionists are Jews.
“It’s all very complex. But, it’s my perception that Zionist billionaires run the world,” Galindo told the San Antonio Current. “They’re of all religions. But, especially Israeli, Jewish billionaire Zionists who disproportionately and factually own a lot of Hollywood production studios, media companies, and banks.”
The Democratic hopeful also suggested that the “Israeli billionaire Zionists” were running a human trafficking network out of San Antonio.
“That’s why we have so many Blue Dog Democrats here,” Galindo said. “The billionaire Zionists who own this area and the trafficking networks need to maintain control over it. They are also infiltrating our local governments, the Israeli billionaire Zionists. So, I think it’s important to expose that and call it out.”
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The comments earned widespread denunciations, including from champions of the anti-Zionist cause like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Some Democrats, including Ocasio-Cortez, suggested that Galindo was being secretly funded by Republicans.
“This is absolutely disgusting. This bigoted garbage and antisemitism should be nowhere near our politics. If you’re in TX-35, vote for @johnnygarciatx,” the congresswoman said. “And the donors behind the Republican super PAC funding her should be exposed.”
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