By Stan Caplan in San Diego
Maureen Galindo, a Democratic candidate for Congress in Texas’s 35th District, recently declared on Instagram that if elected she would turn the Karnes ICE Detention Center into “a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking.”
She went even further, calling it a “castration processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists.”
This is not ancient history. This is May 2026 in the United States of America. A candidate running for the United States Congress is openly calling for the internment, imprisonment, and mutilation of American Jews who support Israel.
We have seen this movie before. In the 1930s, many Jews and good-hearted people stayed silent, dismissed the rising hatred as “just rhetoric,” or told themselves “it can’t happen here.” That silence helped pave the road to Auschwitz. History screams at us: when Jews remain quiet in the face of eliminationist rhetoric, the consequences are catastrophic.
Never Again is not a slogan — it is a solemn vow born from the ashes of six million murdered Jews.
Today, we are witnessing a dangerous resurgence of the same hatred. From candidates like Maureen Galindo to sitting members of Congress who call Israel “genocidal” while excusing Hamas terrorists, the pattern is clear. Silence in the face of this evil is complicity.
What Must Be Done — Legally and Morally:
Immediate Disqualification and Expulsion — Any candidate or sitting member of Congress who advocates for the imprisonment, internment, or physical harm of American citizens based on their ethnicity, religion, or support for Israel must be immediately disqualified from running and, if already in office, expelled from Congress. The Constitution does not protect those who seek to destroy the very rights it guarantees.
Criminal Investigation and Prosecution — Openly calling for concentration camps and the castration of Jews constitutes incitement to violence and threats against a protected class. The Department of Justice and FBI must launch immediate criminal investigations under hate crime statutes, civil rights laws, and federal threat statutes. Those who cross this line should face the full weight of federal prosecution.
Aggressive Civil Lawsuits Jewish organizations and individuals must file strong defamation, civil rights, and intentional infliction of emotional distress lawsuits against Galindo and anyone who spreads these blood libels. We must use every legal tool available to bankrupt those who traffic in this hatred and make an example of them.
Voter Rejection and Party Expulsion — The Democratic Party must immediately denounce, disavow, and remove support from Galindo and every candidate or elected official who echoes this poison. Any member of Congress who calls Israel “genocidal” while defending Hamas is not merely wrong — they are anti-American and should be removed from office at the ballot box. Where evidence exists of material support for designated terrorist groups, they should face legal consequences up to and including deportation proceedings if they are not U.S. citizens.
As a proud Jew and proud American running for Congress in CA-51 against incumbent Sara Jacobs, I will fight this hatred with every fiber of my being. We need representatives who stand without apology for the Jewish people, for Israel’s right to defend itself, and for basic human decency — something sadly lacking in Sara Jacobs’ weak and equivocal record, including her vote against the Antisemitism Awareness Act adopting the IHRA definition and her repeated calls for unilateral ceasefires that reward Hamas.
The Jewish people have survived Pharaoh, the Nazis, and Hamas. We will survive this latest wave of hatred — but only if we refuse to be silent and take every lawful action necessary to crush it.
I will not be silent. I will fight this.
Never Again means Never Again.
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Stan Caplan is a small business owner and candidate for Congress in California’s 51st District. He is a proud Jew, a proud American, and an unapologetic supporter of Israel.
Here’s a relay of commentary by the American Zionist Movement:
The American Zionist Movement (AZM) condemns in the strongest possible terms the recent remarks made by San Antonio-area candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives Maureen Galindo, who suggested that a local immigrant detention center should be turned “into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking.”
We stand in full support of the Jewish Federation of San Antonio—and with the entire Jewish and pro-Israel community in San Antonio—while echoing the Federation’s affirmation that “divisive and hateful rhetoric targeting the Jewish community has no place in our civic life.”
Singling out “American Zionists” for imprisonment invokes hateful antisemitic tropes that seek to demonize and marginalize members of the Jewish and pro-Israel community. Such language is not only divisive, but also dangerous, especially at this time of rising antisemitism and violence targeting faith communities across the country.
Political discourse must never become a platform for rhetoric that targets or scapegoats Jews or supporters of Israel. Public officials and candidates alike have a responsibility to reject antisemitism unequivocally in all its forms.