WASHINGTON – Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and GOP lawmakers traded barbs on Tuesday as Ocasio-Cortez defended a claim that the United States was running "concentration camps" on the border.

The Washington Post reported that the freshman congresswoman told her 3.6 million Instagram followers Monday evening that, "The fact that concentration camps are now an institutionalized practice in the home of the free is extraordinarily disturbing, and we need to do something about it.”

She also accused Trump of “an authoritarian and fascist presidency.”

And on Tuesday, she reiterated the claim, posting an Esquire article on Twitter arguing that the migrant detention centers were concentration camps.

More:Trump administration to house migrant children at Fort Sill, which once served as a Japanese internment camp

"This administration has established concentration camps on the southern border of the United States for immigrants, where they are being brutalized with dehumanizing conditions and dying," Ocasio-Cortez wrote.

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the daughter of the former vice president, slammed Ocasio-Cortez for the comments.

"Please @AOC do us all a favor and spend just a few minutes learning some actual history," Cheney wrote. "6 million Jews were exterminated in the Holocaust. You demean their memory and disgrace yourself with comments like this."

To which Ocasio Cortez responded:

"Hey Rep. Cheney, since you’re so eager to “educate me,” I’m curious: What do YOU call building mass camps of people being detained without a trial? How would you dress up DHS’s mass separation of thousands children at the border from their parents?"

Cheney shot back with an Amazon link:

"Happy to help educate you @AOC. You could start with the ⁦@yadvashem⁩ survivor testimonies. I also recommend Night by Elie Wiesel. Here’s an Amazon link to make it easy for you to purchase."

The Trump administration has facedcontroversy over its immigration detention practices after migrants have died in the custody of the federal government. The death of a transgender asylum seeker from El Salvador also prompted concerns that transgender migrants were being mistreated in detention.

Contributing: Alan Gomez

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