"Jason Chaffetz's comments are more than just offensive and embarrassing to all Americans; they demonstrate a blatant disregard of the need to be vigilant in remembering the lessons learned from a disgraceful chapter in U.S. history,” California Rep. Mike Honda said Friday in a statement.

Honda said Chaffetz statements will only “fuel resentment toward targeted ethnic groups.”

Chaffetz, who is running for Utah's 3rd District seat, took offense at Honda's criticism, saying he never singled out any ethnic group in his immigration proposal and demanded an apology from the congressman.

He said his immigration plan is built around a bipartisan proposal from the Western Governors Association. That plan says the federal government should pay for regional correctional facilities to detain immigrants convicted of crimes in state courts.

Chaffetz said he added the idea of housing convicted immigrants in prison camps ringed by barbed wire - an idea he took from the Maricopa County, Ariz., sheriff who houses prisoners in tent cities - while they await deportation because it is a cheaper way to do it.

Chaffetz's plan also goes further than the governors' proposal because it starts by targeting undocumented immigrants who commit crimes, but extends to all of those in the country illegally.

In his plan, there is no “path to citizenship” and all undocumented immigrants would be deported if they don't return home voluntarily.

“Where these guys are overstepping the line is saying that it has anything to do with ethnicity. They absolutely should apologize for that. That has never been my position, and it is terribly unfair and inaccurate,” Chaffetz said. “If you're breaking the law and you're a fugitive, I want to go after you and put you in jail. I don't care if you're from Russia, Japan or Guatemala, it doesn't matter to me.”

Chaffetz's Democratic opponent, Bennion Spencer, said Chaffetz's immigration plan is "abominable."

"It makes me sick," Spencer said. "This is way off the charts. His position on tent cities does not fall into the mainstream of what people of Utah believe, it does not fall into the mainstream of what Utah is about. . . . We're better than that. We represent different values than that."

Spencer said that, Chaffetz's complaints notwithstanding, immigrants with dark skin would be singled out and targeted, and those from European countries would not.

The Pew Hispanic Center estimated that in 2004, 81 percent of undocumented immigrants in the United States were of Latino origin.

Nine percent were from Asia, 6 percent from Europe and Canada, and 4 percent from the rest of the world.

Honda was born in California but spent several years of his childhood in a Japanese internment camp in Granada, Colo.

The Topaz camp, outside Delta, housed more than 8,000 detainees during the war. Last year the camp, located in the 3rd Congressional District, was designated a national historic landmark.

Honda said Chaffetz “intentionally used intolerance to promote his own political agenda.”

Jason Chaffetz's comments are more than just offensive and embarrassing to all Americans; they demonstrate a blatant disregard of the need to be vigilant in remembering the lessons learned from a disgraceful chapter in U.S. history.

- California Rep. Mike Honda, who spent several years of his childhood in a Japanese internment camp in Granada, Colo.