Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) blasted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Wednesday for her Instagram story in which she suggested some people concerned about the border crisis are engaging in “white supremacist” thinking.
“Every word of this is false,” Cruz tweeted in reply to Ocasio-Cortez’s video. “It IS a #BidenBorderCrisis. It’s a humanitarian crisis. It’s a health crisis. It’s a national security crisis. And Dems are desperately trying to COVER IT UP. They’re #Gaslighting you.”
Every word of this is false.
It IS a #BidenBorderCrisis
It’s a humanitarian crisis.
It’s a health crisis.
It’s a national security crisis.
And Dems are desperately trying to COVER IT UP.
They’re #Gaslighting you. https://t.co/i4NRNjNFpA
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 31, 2021
Ocasio-Cortez posted a monologue Tuesday on Instagram, during which she opined on the events at the U.S.-Mexico border, which she alleged was being framed in racist ways by conservatives.
As The Daily Wire reported:
The New York Democrat did not explicitly blame President Joe Biden for the surge of illegal migrants crossing the U.S. border, though migrants themselves cite the president and his policies as primary factors in their decision to travel to the U.S.
“So let’s talk about this because so much of our national conversation, which is not a conversation, about immigration is driven by people who could not care less about immigrants. So often people want to say, ‘Why aren’t you talking about the border crisis?’ or ‘Why are you talking about it in this way?’” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“Well, we’re talking about it. They just don’t like how we’re talking about it because it’s not a border crisis, it’s an imperialism crisis. It’s a climate crisis. It’s a trade crisis. And also, it’s a carceral crisis because as I have already said even during this term and this president, our immigration system is based and designed on our carceral system,” she continued.
Ocasio-Cortez went on even to link the word “surge” with racism, which The Daily Wire also noted:
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) asserted that referring to the immigration crisis as a “surge” is rooted in white supremacist philosophy.
Ocasio-Cortez commented on the ongoing crisis at the border Tuesday on Instagram. Ocasio-Cortez came under public pressure in recent days to sound off on the issue under the Biden administration after being an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
The New York Democrat avoided explicitly blaming the Biden administration for the crisis, instead asserting that climate change, imperialism, and trade created it.
“People don’t want to have that conversation,” she said, referring to the issues she raised. She went on to claim anyone who refers to a “surge” of illegal migrants is trying to distract from other issues and is using white supremacist talking points.
“They want to say, ‘What about the surge?’ Well, first of all, gut check. Stop. Anyone who’s using the term ‘surge’ around you consciously is trying to invoke a militaristic frame and that’s a problem because this is not a surge,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “These are children and they are not insurgents, and we are not being invaded, which, by the way, is a white supremacist idea, philosophy; the idea that if an other is coming in the population, that this is like an invasion of who we are.”
Related: AOC Sounds Off On Border Crisis, Gives Biden A Pass; Blames ‘Imperialism,’ ‘Climate,’ ‘Trade’