Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Friday dared border czar Tom Homan to arrest her for what she claimed was legal advice she gave to migrants on how to avoid being deported.
Homan responded to the congresswoman’s taunt by saying he was already exploring her arrest with the U.S. Justice Department.
The dare came at a packed town hall in Queens after Homan previously suggested Ocasio-Cortez’s hosting of a “Know Your Rights” webinar in February impedes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from carrying out the Trump administration’s deportation of illegal aliens.
Ocasio-Cortez told a cheering audience, “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 added, there was “nothing illegal about it and if they want to make it illegal, they can come take me.”
The webinar recommended illegal aliens ask for warrants and deploy phones to record ICE searches. It provided tips on how to differentiate between different warrants authorities are likely to carry.
Homan has repeatedly said the congresswoman likely ventured into illegal territory with her advice.
After AOC’s town hall dare, Homan told Fox News, “I’m working with the Department of Justice and finding out, ‘Where is that line that they cross?’ So maybe AOC is going to be in trouble now.”
In an appearance in February on Sunday Morning Futures, Homan was more specific:
What she needs to do is read the statutes enacted by Congress… because it’s a crime to enter this country illegally. Not only that, but when you harbor and conceal and impede law enforcement, that’s a felony. What she’s doing, she says she’s educating everybody on their constitutional rights, and we all know they’ve got constitutional rights, but what she’s really doing… she’s trying to teach them how to evade law enforcement.
At the town hall, Ocasio-Cortez also took on one of the Trump administration’s most popular immigration policies. She called the removal of Venezuelan gang members “sanctioned kidnappings.”
She claimed that without a warrant, agents don’t have “carte blanche” to enter and arrest gang members.
President Trump’s highest approval ratings, polls consistently have shown, come from his tough crackdown on illegal crossings and removal of criminal illegal aliens and gang members.
