Liberals in Congress have been standing in strong opposition to President Donald Trump's immigration agenda ever since he took office in January, and one particularly outspoken lawmaker is ratcheting up the rhetoric and seemingly looking for a fight.
As Breitbart reports, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) essentially challenged the Trump administration border czar to seek charges against her for a February webinar in which she arguably provided advice on how to skirt Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigations.
It was several months ago that the office of Ocasio-Cortez hosted the aforementioned “Know Your Rights” live webinar, providing advice to migrants on what to do if they find themselves under ICE enforcement scrutiny, as Fox News noted at the time.
Included in the presentation was information on how to respond if ICE officials appeared at migrants' homes or workplaces and warnings of potential “ruses” used to secure compliance with search demands.
The target audience was urged to record interactions with ICE and to learn the differences between types of warrants and searches conducted by the agency.
Though the congresswoman was not a direct participant in the presentation of information, she did write with regard to its content, “Our strategic advantage in this moment is our strength in numbers. It is time to use it. In nearly every way, we outnumber those who want to abuse their power and keep people in fear,” telling constituents that “if ICE comes to your workplace or home, whether you are a citizen or noncitizen -- YOU can defend your community and our constitution by exercising your right.”
The involvement of Ocasio-Cortez drew the attention of Homan, who then said during a Fox News appearance, “Is that impeding our law enforcement efforts? If so, what are we going to do about it? Is she crossing the line? So, I'm working with the Department of Justice and finding out. Where is that line that they cross? So, maybe AOC's gonna be in trouble now.”
Shortly after Homan made his remarks, AOC offered a snarky retort to the border czar, saying, “Maybe he can learn to read. The Constitution would be a good place to start.”
During a town hall meeting last week, Ocasio-Cortez came back to the question of whether Homan was seriously pursuing prosecution over her involvement with the webinar.
AOC stated, “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?'”
She pressed her point further by declaring there to have been “nothing illegal about it, and if they want to make it illegal, they can come take me.”
In addition to defiance with regard to Homan, AOC has ramped up her rhetoric about Trump's agenda more broadly, suggesting that his administration's removals of Venezuelan gang members has been akin to “sanctioned kidnappings.”
Law professor and Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley has commented negatively on the prospect of AOC's prosecution over the webinar controversy, saying that it would amount to “an assault on free speech rights,” but the administration continues to express a hardline stance against those who would willfully interfere with the work of ICE.
With the issuance of an executive order by Trump last week designed to identify and possibly halt funding to sanctuary cities that thwart local cooperation with federal immigration authorities, it is quite clear that the administration is not backing down when it comes to its enforcement efforts, and confrontations such as the one between Homan and AOC are only likely to grow.
