A California state representative is pushing back against a sprawling immigrant detention camp proposed at a former naval base near the Bay Area.
Plans for the camp, and others in Alabama, Arizona and Southern California, were detailed in an internal document of the U.S. Navy obtained and reported on by TIME Magazine.
According to TIME, the memo includes a proposed camp at Naval Weapons Station Concord, located northeast of San Francisco and Oakland, to house as many as 47,000 immigrants. A site at Camp Pendleton in Southern California was also suggested to hold as many immigrants.
On Friday afternoon, Rep. Mark DeSailnier, D-Dist. 11, spoke out against the report in a Facebook live video.
“There is no way you can put 50,00 people at that base,” DeSailnier said, noting his knowledge of the area, having served as mayor of Concord in 1993 and in both state and federal capacities for Contra Costa County.
The document referred to the camps as “temporary and austere” and would be built to last between six months and one year, according to TIME.
“My message to the administration…is to stop. Just stop. You’ve made a situation, that was manageable, into a crisis…This is nothing short of madness,” DeSailnier criticized.
DeSalinier has represented California’s 11th district in the U.S. House of Representatives since January 2015. Before that he served as a state senator for six years.
