(This post may contain disputed claims. We make no assertions as to the validity of the information presented by our Opinion Columnist. We are an opinion blog, not a traditional news outlet, and this post should be treated as such. Enjoy.)Following President Donald Trump’s Tuesday night address from the Oval Office, newly sworn-in Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went on television to trash his stance on border security. She was promptly humiliated, however, after a little fact from her past was exposed.
In a Tuesday night address from the Oval Office, President Donald Trump spoke directly to the American people regarding the ongoing government shutdown, imploring Democrats to fund a border wall that will keep dangerous illegal immigrants from entering the country.
“America proudly welcomes millions of lawful immigrants who enrich our society and contribute to our nation. But all Americans are hurt by uncontrolled, illegal migration,” said the president. “Our southern border is a pipeline for vast quantities of illegal drugs including meth, heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl.”
“Every week 300 of our citizens are killed by heroin alone, 90 percent of which floods across from our southern border,” added Trump. “More Americans will die from drugs this year than were killed in the entire Vietnam War. In the last two years, ICE officers made 266,000 arrests of aliens with criminal records including those charged or convicted of 100,000 assaults, 30,000 sex crimes, and 4000 violent killings.”
“Over the years thousands of Americans have been brutally killed by those who illegally entered our country and thousands more lives will be lost if we don’t act right now,” said the president. “This is a humanitarian crisis, a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul.”
In response, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sat down with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and demanded that Trump explain why American taxpayers are still funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which she accused of committing “human rights” abuses.
“No one should feel unsafe in the United States of America,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “And that includes our amazing and beautiful and productive immigrant community. And moreover, the one thing the president has not talked about is the fact he has systematically engaged in the violation of international human rights borders — human rights on our border.”
“He talked about what happened the day after Christmas. On the day of Christmas, a child died in ICE custody,” she went on. “The president should not be asking for more money to an agency that has systematically violated human rights. The president should be really defending why we are funding such an agency at all because right now what we are seeing is death.”
“Right now what we are seeing is the violation of human rights,” said the admitted Socialist. “These children and these families are being held in … basically freezing boxes that no person should be maintained in for any amount of time let alone the amount of time they are being kept on. And moreover, even if you’re anti-immigrant in this country, the majority of immigrant overstays, the majority of the reason people are undocumented is Visa overstay. It’s not because people are crossing a border.”
WATCH: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez delivers impassioned response to President Trump’s address: “The president should be really defending why we are funding [ICE] at all … right now, what we are seeing, is death.” pic.twitter.com/4Al4GLWUvB
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) January 9, 2019
What Ocasio-Cortez failed to mention, however, was the fact that she voted to continue funding ICE just one week earlier.
Even as she laid out her challenge to the president, Ocasio-Cortez appeared to forget that Congress — not the president — controls budget appropriations and determines which agencies continue to receive what funding. She conveniently left out the fact that just a week earlier, when she voted “aye” on House Joint Resolution 1, she herself had voted to fund ICE through the end of the fiscal year.
As reported by The Daily Caller, H.J. Res. 1 passed with 100 percent Democratic support. Additionally, five Republicans joined with the Democrats in voting “aye.” The intent of the resolution was, “Making further continuing appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security [DHS] for fiscal year 2019, and for other purposes.”
ICE is funded through DHS, thus, Ocasio-Cortez cast one of her first votes as a congresswoman to continue funding the agency she has repeatedly called for abolishing and has accused of “systematically” violating human rights. Oh, the irony!
