Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) delivered an “inaugural address” in her Congressional District on Saturday afternoon, declaring that issues like the “right to migrate” will not be negotiable.
Addressing hundreds of supporters in the Bronx, the freshman lawmaker even had a swearing-in ceremony before uttering mostly platitudes.
Defending the Green New Deal after she and her office botched the rollout to much ridicule this week, the Democratic-Socialist claimed that the “Green New Deal is the legislation of indigenous communities in the United states” and many others.
“The Green New Deal is the legislation of the residents of Flynt. The Green New Deal belongs to the people of Puerto Rico. The Green New Deal belongs to the coal miners in West Virginia,” she continued. “It belongs to the victims of wildfires in California.”
She accused President Donald Trump of holding Americans “hostage” during the government shutdown and took pride in helping defeat his plans to get full funding for his border wall. Though she did not yell like former NBA player Kevin Garnett, Ocasio-Cortez said that “anything is possible” when “we center our communities and allow them to lead.”
Ocasio-Cortez, who voted against keeping the government open because the spending bill gave additional funds to the Department of Homeland Security, said the “dignity of immigrants, a living wage, an economic and ecological future” are “not up for negotiation.”
A day after cheering Amazon’s decision to not build its additional headquarters in New York, Ocasio-Cortez did not namecheck the company. But she spoke about how Americans can have both “economic growth” and “social dignity.”
She insisted that New Yorkers should should have “dignified jobs” and “not have to settle for scraps in the greatest city in the world.”
“And we will not take no for an answer for dignity for working people in the United States of America,” she said.
Ocasio-Cortez also told those in the audience to get more involved in politics and their communities so they “can make the right thing popular.”
“When it comes to our right to health care, our right to migrate, our right to live, our right to be paid a dignified wage, we will not take no for an answer,” Ocasio-Cortez said days after amnesty groups cheered her vote against the spending bill to keep government open.