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Clinton referred to a "boxcar" in describing Republicans' proposals to deport immigrants

The reference was seen by some to be a reference to the way Nazi Germany rounded up Jews and others during the Holocaust

Minneapolis CNN  — 

Hillary Clinton’s campaign spokesman on Friday denied that a reference the candidate made in regard to Republicans’ proposals on immigration was an allusion to the Holocaust.

“I find it the height of irony that a party that espouses small government would want to unleash a massive law enforcement effort, including perhaps National Guard and others, to go and literally pull people out of their homes and their workplaces, round them up, put them, I don’t know, in buses, boxcars, in order to take them across our border,” Clinton said about immigration. “I just find that not only absurd, but appalling.”

The boxcar reference was seen by some to be a reference to the way Nazi Germany rounded up Jews and others during the Holocaust.

Some Republicans, most notably 2016 front-runner Donald Trump, have called for the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States to be deported.

Nick Merrill, Clinton’s spokesman, pointed out that Jeb Bush also used the word “boxcar” earlier this summer to describe how undocumented immigrants would be deported.

“I don’t think our country is going to be the kind of country that puts people on boxcars and sends them away,” the former Florida governor said at an event in Henderson, Nevada, in June.

Asked on Friday about the line, former Maryland governor and Clinton competitor Martin O’Malley said he thought the language was appropriate.

Clinton added on Friday that she supports immigration reform and has “for years.”

“I will oppose in every way I can what I consider to be nothing but a political stunt,” Clinton said. “And will also raise questions as I am doing today about what the realities of that kind of claim actually are.”