“Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dared border czar Tom Homan to haul her to court on Friday, months after he threatened her with prosecution for trying to impede President Trump’s mass deportations.
“Tom Homan said he was going to refer me to DOJ because I’m using my free speech rights in order to advise people of their constitutional protections. To that I say: Come for me. Do I look like I care?” the Bronx and Queens Democrat told attendees at a jam-packed town hall in Jackson Heights, Queens.
There’s “nothing illegal about it — and if they want to make it illegal, they can come take me,” she declared.
In February, AOC hosted a webinar and shared a “Know Your Rights” pamphlet with her more than 12 million followers on X to give illegal immigrants tips to evade the feds.
Homan told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” in an interview that month he had been “working with the Department of Justice and finding out” who was seeking to block deportations.
“Maybe AOC is going to be in trouble now,” he cautioned, noting that immigration authorities are looking out for those who “cross” the line into abetting illegal aliens unlawfully present in the US.
“Do Not Open Your Door,” the “AOC”-branded pamphlet advised about how to deal with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
“ICE cannot enter your home without a warrant signed by a judge,” it stated.
Immigrant Defense Project lawyer Genia Blaser added on the webinar: “ICE raids are political tactics, and they’re often intended to create fear.”
“We see how ICE often uses rhetoric to criminalize immigrants, to normalize their tactics and justify what they’re doing,” she added, describing encounters between migrants and ICE as “often very aggressive.”
Those who joined the livestream were instructed to ask for warrants if the authorities came knocking and given details about various warrants used in removal proceedings.
“What she needs to do is read the statutes enacted by Congress,” Homan said in February, “because it’s a crime to enter this country illegally.”
“Not only that, but when you harbor and conceal and impede law enforcement, that’s a felony,” he added.
“What she’s doing, she says she’s educating everybody on their constitutional rights, and we all know they’ve got constitutional rights, but what she’s really doing … she’s trying to teach them how to evade law enforcement.”
Ocasio-Cortez clapped back on X at the time: “Maybe he can learn to read. The Constitution would be a good place to start.”
AOC and other Dems have sounded the alarm about the deportations, with the New York pol referring to them as state-“sanctioned kidnappings” in her Friday town hall.
“I don’t even want to call them deportations. They are sanctioned kidnappings in many circumstances,” she said. “They do not have carte blanche to enter.”
“If they do want to knock on your door, or knock on anyone’s door — including your workplace — you can tell them, ‘Show me a warrant. Show me a judicial warrant.’ And if they don’t show you a warrant, you can say they can come back with a warrant. You have the right to turn them away,” she noted.
Also during the town hall, a woman lashed out at the lefty congresswoman for not doing enough to halt the “genocide in Gaza,” eliciting boos the audience.
“You’re a war criminal! War criminal! War criminal!” the attendee screeched as she was escorted out of the auditorium, adding, “Shame on you, I used to support you!”
“I more than welcome people who disagree, or are super pissed off at me for any issue to come, but we have some ground rules here,” AOC responded.
“Please wait for the Q&A because we don’t want to deprive all of our neighbors of the ability to have information and hearing them to respond to it,” she added. “We need to be able to have this conversation.”
Ocasio-Cortez apologized to her constituents for voting “present” on US funding to Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system — but since then hasn’t batted an eye when voting down resolutions condemning Hamas terrorists and massive tranches of military aid to the Jewish state.
Read the full article here
