Are the views of conservative Candace Owens too extreme when it comes to ICE’s immigration facilities?
On September 6, there was a story posted to YouTube with the headline “Candace Owens visits ICE immigration center it’s nicer than every school I attended!”
Owens is an up-and-coming political activist for the Republican party and the Director of Communications for the conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA. She is known for being unafraid to voice her extremely strong opinions about liberal activists, and the Democratic party. She has also lashed out at Black Lives Matter protestors, saying that their “victim mentality is not cool.”
Owens vehemently supports President Trump — and he has become a fan of hers as well— and is becoming a sough-out voice to argue for the conservative way of thinking. The funny thing is though, Owens was not always a conservative: At one point she was actually a liberal and sided with much of the liberal way of thinking. At the age of 29, she rose to fame when she went against liberal views saying she “she didn’t see progress in black and white community togetherness.” After that she became a part of the new and rising group of young black conservatives.
On October 11, celebrity rapper Kanye West visited President Trump at the White House and received a tremendous amount of backlash because of it. Who had his back when all of this occurred? None other than, yes of course, Candace Owens.
So of course, when she posted her immigrant detention center video online, it received much reaction from people both conservatives and liberals.
Owens’ video takes place at the Broward Transitional Center in Deerfield Beach, Fla. In the video, she explains that she has spent the last couple of days exploring prisons and had the opportunity to visit an immigration center.
Owens starts out by saying that, “children are being mistreated in this country, they are not the children that are sent to ICE immigration centers.”
“They are the children that are in Chicago, they are the children that are in Baltimore, they are the children in Detroit.”
Some viewers were alarmed at Owens’ tone, which included calling liberals who criticize conditions in detention centers “filthy disgusting liars.”
“Oh wow! And that’s not a good ‘oh wow!’” said Daina Barrett a student at Florida Atlantic University.
Some viewers of Owens videos were convinced that fewer immigrants should be allowed into the U.S., and that Trump is on the right track. Jeffrey Jeter, a home health aide, posted in the comment section on Facebook “BUILD THE DAMN WALL”
Owens described BTC as a place that was nicer than her public school.
“I walked in on women that were in their arts and crafts session, they had just concluded their fucking Zumba class. I’m not saying that people who come here shouldn’t be treated well, that’s not the argument here. But these people are treated great, they are treated fantastically.” said Owens.
Critics of Owens said her video was manipulative and misleading. After all, the ‘T’ in BTC stands for ‘transitional.’ The people there are in transit, in most cases, because they are in deportation proceedings. BTC is a for-profit detention center owned and operated by GEO Group in a contract with ICE. It focuses on non-criminal and low security detainees.
“This is beyond ignorant,” Cielo Fortin-Camacho an attorney for Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), in a comment on Facebook. “I work in those detention facilities and I represent the unaccompanied minors who live there or have lived there. To say the facilities are in any way similar, let alone better, than a public school is bullshit.”
“They’re letting these illegal immigrants in to replace the black vote, and black people. Blacks are starting to leave the Democratic Plantation Party, especially black men under the #walkaway movement,” wrote Raul Jones, a driver, also on Facebook.
Owens continued, “I usually don’t rant like this, I’m usually not this angry, but today I am pretty infuriated. I am infuriated for the children of America, who nobody gives a shit about on the left.”
The left meaning, anyone who’s a Democrat.
“Nothing in that video made sense, she was ranting on about nothing, she thought she sounded intelligent, but she sounded angry more than anything,” said Joshua Breaux a student at Florida Atlantic University.
“Holy crap, hair salons and sporting facilities?! It sounds like a resort,” Robert Weekes posted to YouTube.
Did Candace Owens, make a good point? Is the United States too concerned with undocumented immigrants rather than its own citizens? Or is she fighting for a cause that isn’t valid? Viewers can decide for themselves. But one thing is clear: we can expect to hear more from Owens, who is marking her mark as an outspoken black conservative giving her full support to Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda.
