Maria Hinojosa's Anne Frank analogy draws backlash over Latino children and ICE fear

A Mexican-American radio host sparked online fury after comparing Latino children who fear ICE raids to Anne Frank, during an appearance on MSNBC's The Weekend.

Maria Hinojosa, founder of Futuro Media and anchor and executive producer of Latino USA, told co-host Eugene Daniels that she had posted on X after the first day on the ground in Chicago, describing a number of children she said are living in fear as if they were Anne Franks. She said the post referenced a girl named Anita in Chicago who is depicted as invisible and Mexican, and framed the discussion as a meditation on the psychological toll of immigration enforcement on minority communities.

She then read parts of the post she shared on X on Sept. 16, which described waking up in Chicago after a day of witnessing a community under siege and reflecting on people visiting the Anne Frank exhibit in New York. The message also referenced a girl named Anita in Chicago who is living in fear and described her as invisible and Mexican.

The remarks drew swift backlash on social media, with critics arguing that equating a genocidal crime with immigration enforcement trivializes historic suffering. Some commenters noted that Anne Frank did not commit a crime and that she hid solely because she was Jewish; others argued that Nazis would have harmed her, while a separate commenter said migrants in the United States have no legal right to be here and that they are not being sent to gas chambers.

Another reaction condemned the framing as inappropriate, with voices insisting that comparing Anne Frank to migrants who are sent home is insulting and misleading.

The episode comes as immigration policy and enforcement remain a flashpoint in national politics. Debates over ICE raids and broader deportation efforts have intensified in recent weeks, with critics accusing the Trump administration of broadening the reach of enforcement actions. Some observers say the discourse has increasingly invoked historical analogies to Nazi Germany, prompting pushback from those who see such comparisons as historically inaccurate or harmful.

In Washington, Vice President JD Vance weighed in on the use of Nazi imagery in political discourse. He argued that political violence should be deterred and urged opponents not to characterize law enforcement as the Gestapo, noting that criticisms of policy should not escalate into calls for violence.

The broader political climate has also featured controversial comparisons to Nazi censorship. Ty Cobb, a former Trump administration lawyer, drew a link between ABC's decision to drop Jimmy Kimmel and censorship in Nazi Germany, while recalling Joseph Goebbels' 1939 move to remove comedians from the air. Cobb also invoked Vladimir Putin's suppression of dissenting media outlets and warned that erosion of constitutional rights could follow such patterns.

Amid the debate, immigration advocates urged careful language and urged lawmakers to focus on policy specifics and the welfare of communities affected by enforcement actions. They cautioned that hyperbolic comparisons can obscure the real human impact of raids and deportations and risk alienating immigrant communities who already live with the fear of enforcement actions.