Politics
JUST IN: DHS Threatens AOC With Arrest
If “Squad” Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) makes good on her latest anti-Trump promise, she’ll be arrested, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman declared.
Tricia McLaughlin, the immigration agency’s assistant secretary for public affairs, told Fox News viewers on Monday night that the Bronx Democrat would be placed in handcuffs if she performs “the same kind of stunt” as other Democratic politicians who recently interfered with U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement housing illegal immigrants suspected of violent crimes.
“If she trespasses and if she assaults law enforcement officers, as we saw earlier, I think that’s certainly on the table. As far as we’ve heard, a lot of Democrats make the argument that they’re just conducting oversight, congressional oversight,” McLaughlin said on ‘The Bottom Line.”
On Sunday, AOC posted a video selfie on Instagram reacting to news that federal officials had arrested Ras Baraka, the Democratic mayor of Newark, New Jersey, after he got into a heated exchange with ICE agents outside an immigration facility when he was refused entry.
Alina Habba, the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, confirmed Baraka was taken into custody after he “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center.”
DHS officials later described a chaotic scene where Baraka joined riot instigators in seeking to “storm” the gates of the facility, leading to the physical confrontation.
Also in attendance were Democratic New Jersey Reps. Rob Menendez Jr. (D-NJ), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), and LaMonica McIver (D-NJ).
“We know that’s baloney because had they asked us, had they requested a tour, David, we would have happily facilitated that for them as well,” McLaughlin said. “There are public guidelines that we have offered, including that they need to notify us 24 hours in advance if they would like a tour of the facility. So, again, this is all political gamesmanship, and we’re not playing with the safety of our law enforcement officers.”
Coleman later said in a statement that the lawmakers were on site to “exercise their oversight authority” and were eventually “escorted” in.
WATCH:
In her video, AOC threatened a “problem” for ICE and DHS agents if they “lay a finger” on “Coleman or any of the representatives,” the Daily Caller reported.
“You lay a finger on Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman or any of the representatives that were there, you lay a finger on them, and we’re going to have a problem,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
If video is vindication, however, then the truth may be on the side of ICE. One day after the arrest of Baraka, the immigration agency released bodycam footage showing a tense exchange between both sides. In a statement, ICE claimed that McIver is guilty of “assaulting an ICE agent.”
McLaughlin also defended the practice of housing illegal immigrants at the Delaney Hall facility, saying they are suspected or convicted of being “rapists, child predators, an MS-13 gang member, even a suspected terrorist.”
