Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: America is Committing ‘International Human Rights Abuses’ at Border

Socialist Democrat candidate for Congress Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says the United States is currently committing “international human rights abuses” at the U.S.-Mexico border because of President Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy.

In an interview with Al Jazeera’s AJ+, Ocasio said the U.S. is currently involved in crimes against humanity by criminally prosecuting all border crossers at the southern border.

“Right now, the nation that we are living in is a country that … an administration that has committed international human rights abuses by separating children from their parents,” Ocasio told Al Jazeera. “That is being done in our name. Once something that extreme happens, we have to act immediately.”

Ocasio accused Americans of becoming increasingly bigotted because of policies like Trump’s travel ban from some Muslim-majority countries — which was recently upheld by the Supreme Court.

“What the administration is doing is racializing the fight over immigration,” Ocasio said. “And that is stoking an increased sense of bigotry in the country. And so there is absolutely a connection and that is why I think we have to be in solidarity with each other.”

A plurality of Americans say they support Trump’s zero tolerance policy at the border, which now detains illegal alien adults and the children with whom they crossed into the U.S.

In a 2014 poll, a majority of swing voters and GOP voters said that even migrants described as “children” should be deported “as soon as possible,” as Breitbart News’s Neil Munro reported at the time. The poll indicated that in the midst of this border crisis, Americans by a majority support tougher than usual border policies.