Footage has resurfaced showing a congressional spat between progressive “Squad” member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) and former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director Ton Homan. The hearing revolved around liberal outrage during former President Donald Trump’s presidency regarding his border policies.
During the hearing, AOC tore into Homan over the separation of families when illegal immigrants are detained at the southern border, which Ocasio Cortez claimed is a violation of international law. However, Homan shut down the progressive congresswoman with cold, hard facts, leaving AOC speechless as the former director confronted her.
“So we as members of the United Nations signed on into international human rights agreement, saying very clearly that family separation is a violation of international human rights, and we pursued a policy that violates human rights. You know, Mr. Chair, I was looking, how did we get to this point?” the Democratic representative said.
As AOC continued to sound off on Homan, alleging he had authored a memo that authorized the separation of families at the border, he maintained that he didn’t write it, but only signed the “zero-tolerance memo.” The former director said, “I gave Secretary Nielsen numerous recommendations on how to secure the border and save lives.”
AOC fired back, “But it says here that you read, you gave her numerous options, but the recommendation was option three, family separation.” In response, Homan stressed, “I’m saying this is not the only paper where we’ve given the secretary numerous options to secure the border and save lives.” Ocasio Cortez added, “And so the recommendation of the many that you recommended, you recommended family separation.”
Homan refused to back down from his “zero tolerance” stance, maintaining, “I recommend a zero tolerance … the same as is whatever US citizen, parent gets arrested when they’re with a child.” After Homan illustrated that the practice is also universally applied to United States citizens, AOC was left speechless and didn’t seem to acknowledge the implications of Homan’s statement.
AOC continued discussing criticizing the “zero tolerance” stance, before Homan interjected to provide AOC with helpful context. “If I get arrested for DUI and I have a young child in a car, I’m gonna be separated. When I was a police officer in New York and I arrested a father for domestic violence, I separated that father from the family,” he said.
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The congresswoman said, “Mr. Homan, with all due respect, legal asylees are not charged with any crime.” Directly citing legal code, Homan informed Ocasio Cortez that unlawfully crossing the border, whether a migrant is seeking asylum or not, is still a crime if they don’t go through a legal port of entry. “When you’re in the country illegally, it’s violation eight United States Code, 1325,” Homan noted.
Displeased with the response and seemingly ignoring Homan’s factual response, AOC said, “Seeking asylum is legal.” The former ICE director maintained, “If you want to seek asylum and go to the port of entry. Do it the legal way.” As AOC appeared to become increasingly frustrated with Homan, AOC said, “The Attorney General of the United States and made that clear.”
Watch the congressional spat below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.