Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said in an interview with New Yorker Radio on Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) should be abolished to correct the “egregious mistakes” President George W. Bush made following the 9/11 terror attacks and that Americans want to take in refugees.
“One of the things that you’ve been saying, I think for quite a while now, certainly every couple of years is that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) should be abolished,” the host said. “The answer to you often is, well, why not reform ICE?”
The host citied reformation to the FBI and the CIA in the 1970s and suggested the same could be done for ICE but Ocasio-Cortez disagreed.
“Because the core structure of ice, I believe—and, frankly, the entire Department of Homeland Security—you know, this was established by George Bush, in the wake of 9/11, right?” Ocasio-Cortez said. “As the Patriot Act and all of these different institutions that were, frankly, very large threats to American civil liberties, started to get established. And people sounded the alarm back then that these agencies are extrajudicial, that they lack effective oversight, and it is baked into the core foundational structure of these agencies.”
“Would you get rid of Homeland Security, too?” the host asked.
“I think so, I think so,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I think we need to undo a lot of the egregious mistakes that the Bush Administration did.”
The host asked Ocasio-Cortez what she sees as “sane immigration policy.”
The freshman democratic socialist blamed Trump for creating the illegal immigration crisis on the border by cutting foreign aid to Central America, called for an end to detention on the border and claimed American citizens want to take in refugees.
“This is not a lack-of-resource issue whatsoever,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “There is a lack of desire to allow refugees in.”
“There were plenty of American citizens that are trying to step up to the plate, American citizens that are saying, ‘We’ll take a family in, we’ll take children in,'” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“Most of these children that come to the border already have sponsors,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “They come with phone numbers and they come with people in the country that are willing to take them in and give them refuge.”
“And we have a system that deliberately blocks those families from seeking and taking up Americans who want to give them refuge,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Follow Penny Starr on Twitter
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.