Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has rejected the notion that there is a crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, suggesting criticisms of President Joe Bidens administration’s handling of the immigration situation stem from white supremacist and imperialist attitudes.
The video: The New York Democrat fielded a question about the influx of migrants at the border during an Instagram Live session on Tuesday evening and accusing critics who used the term “surge” of invoking a “militaristic frame.”
- “And that’s a problem because this is not a surge, these are children and they are not insurgents and we are not being invaded, which by the way is a White supremacist idea,” she said.
- Responding to the charge that she was “not addressing the border crisis and the kids in cages”: “It’s not a border crisis. It’s an Imperialism crisis, it’s a climate crisis, it’s a trade crisis. And also it’s a carceral crisis,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Context: The Biden administration has faced bipartisan criticism for how its dealt with an influx of migrants at the southern border.
- Citing severe overcrowding at migrant detention centers amid the coronavirus pandemic, Immigrant rights advocates and Republicans have aligned on denouncing the administration’s treatment of migrants as “inhumane.”
- Meanwhile, journalists have complained of the Biden administration’s lack of transparency in granting the media access to the detention centers.
The “kids in cages”: Ocasio-Cortez was one of the most vocal critics of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, particularly with regard to the caging of children separated from their families at the border.
