During a rally against a California bill making vaccines mandatory for school children, a Republican lawmaker from Fresno galvanized the crowd by invoking forced interment camps.

Senate Bill 277 would make vaccination a condition of enrolling in private and public schools, which opponents have castigated for depriving children of an education. That argument temporarily derailed the bill in the Senate Education Committee and was featured prominently in Tuesday’s rally.

“I wouldn’t call it a concentration camp,” said Assemblyman Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, “but they’re suggesting (children) go some place other than public school.”

Later in his speech, Patterson said that he “thought we apologized for internment camps,” an apparent reference to the separation and confinement of Japanese-Americans during World War II.