Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) stated during an Instagram Live video on Tuesday that “it doesn’t make sense” that federal agencies that are charged with protecting the American homeland would be structured under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
“And, by the way, ICE as an agency, as a structure, should not exist,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “DHS as an agency, the way it is currently organized, someone tell me why it makes sense, why FEMA and CBP and ICE and the Coast Guard should all be part of the same agency. It doesn’t make sense and, in fact, it’s incredibly dangerous when it’s structured that way.”
“And so what’s happening is that, um, billions and billions of dollars have gone to ICE and CBP and as we’re talking about police uprisings in this country, I think it’s really important that people understand, do you know what is now the largest law enforcement organization in the United States of America?” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “It’s CBP. It’s Customs and Border Patrol. It’s the largest law enforcement agency in the country.”
CBP does not stand for “Customs and Border Patrol,” it stands for Customs and Border Protection. The Border Patrol is part of Customs and Border Protection.
The four agencies that Ocasio-Cortez claimed should not be organized together—FEMA, CBP, ICE, and the U.S. Coast Guard—all provide critical support to the American homeland.
FEMA responds to major disasters, CBP protects the U.S. border and screens those entering the country, ICE removes people who are illegally in the U.S., and the Coast Guard protects America’s shores.
WATCH:
In response to “uprisings”, Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez renews calls for abolishing DHS, ICE, CBPhttps://t.co/GB7JpnFVDG pic.twitter.com/0mlPy4PWNb
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 28, 2020
During her live stream, Ocasio-Cortez also lamented that illegal aliens have not received “extended unemployment” because they are illegally in the U.S.
“And what NYSYLC is doing is that they are fundraising for an emergency fund, um, to help some of those, to help some of our undocumented brothers and sisters out because one of the big issues that we have in our country is that the amount of race–, oh I have ice cream by the way, but, um, but the amount of xenophobia that we’re seeing especially with this administration, there is so much language that’s disrespecting undocumented people when the fact of the matter is they’re the ones who, these are the families and the individuals that are making sure that we’re fed,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “They’re often taking care of our children.”
Ocasio-Cortez then suggested that breaking federal immigration laws was not “wrong,” saying, “They are often making sure that our work places and our homes are sanitary and so we cannot go on with kind of these xenophobic narratives that undocumented people are somehow wrong or, or just bad human beings when the fact of the matter is, is that, the scaffolding of American life is, so much of the scaffolding of American life is built upon the labor of undocumented people.”
WATCH:
Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “we cannot go on” thinking illegal immigration is "wrong”https://t.co/fZIdZUoC4U pic.twitter.com/t5rTvJunMS
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 28, 2020