A Democratic congressional candidate in Texas has pledged to imprison “American Zionists” in an internment camp if elected.

Maureen Galindo, a therapist and housing activist running in the Democratic primary runoff for Texas’s 35th Congressional District, announced over the weekend that she would write legislation to “turn Karnes ICE Detention Center into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking.”

“It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles which will probably be most of the Zionists,” she added in the Instagram post.

The pledge marks an extraordinary escalation in antisemitic rhetoric from a candidate for federal office in the United States. U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida wrote on X, “First current political candidate suggests concentration camps for American Jews. This should be national news!”

Galindo has promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories throughout her campaign, drawing on some of the oldest and most dangerous tropes in the antisemitic canon.

In a recent appearance on Texas Public Radio’s “The Source,” Galindo denied being antisemitic but stated, “I am against Zionist Jews.” She went on to assert that Zionists “own the media, control the banking system and all politicians,” including in San Antonio, and claimed that “we have Israeli Zionists who are influencing our local politics and our South Texas politics.”

The claim that Jews control media, finance, and government is a centuries-old conspiracy theory that has historically been used to justify pogroms, expulsions, and genocide.

Galindo has separately claimed that Jews worship the “synagogue of Satan,” a phrase widely deployed by white supremacist and Christian nationalist groups to dehumanize Jewish people. In other comments, she has falsely asserted that ICE had “headquarters and offices inside Israel” and described American Jewish political engagement as “an Israeli occupation of America.”

Galindo has also said her runoff opponent, Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputy Johnny Garcia, “should possibly be tried for treason because of his support for Israel,” and accused his campaign of being funded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. In one Instagram post, she declared in all capital letters that her opponent “is being paid to put Jews and Mexicans in concentration camps via Zionist trafficking networks.”

Texas State Rep. James Talarico, a candidate for U.S. Senate, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that “this antisemitic rhetoric has no place in our politics” and “we need leadership in both parties willing to stand up and call out hate wherever it rears its ugly head.” Talarico’s campaign confirmed he would not stump for Galindo even if she wins the nomination.

Rather than retreat from her remarks, Galindo has doubled down. In a follow-up video, she accused her critics of being MAGA supporters and claimed Zionists are trying to create “white supremacist religion states.” The video implicitly suggested MAGA supporters could also be targeted for internment, framing the movement as “an American incarnation of Zionism.”

Galindo finished first in the March Democratic primary with 29.2 percent of the vote, and faces Garcia in the May 26 runoff. Democratic leaders in Washington and Texas have rallied behind Garcia , but Jewish community leaders and observers have warned that the very fact that a candidate with Galindo’s record advanced to a congressional runoff, in a district that leans Democratic, represents a deeply troubling moment for American Jews and the Democratic Party.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)