Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Warns Trump Admin If They ‘Lay a Finger’ on Members of Congress ‘We Are Going To Have a Problem’
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) came to the defense of her fellow Democratic lawmakers this week by warning Trump administration officials they could soon be having “a problem” with her.
Ocasio-Cortez took to Instagram after the Department of Homeland Security suggested they may pursue arrests of three Democratic lawmakers who partook in a protest outside of an ICE facility in Newark, New Jersey. Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), Rob Menendez (D-NJ) and LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) all attended the protest.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told CNN on Saturday that lawmakers could be arrested, suggesting some had assaulted federal agents.
The lawmakers maintain they had a legal right to be there. Menendez said in a statement that members of Congress “have a legal right to conduct oversight at any DHS facility without prior notice.” He claimed that ICE officials tried to “intimidate” them and “impede” their oversight efforts.
McIver also alleged “aggression” by ICE agents.
“From roughing up members of Congress to arresting the mayor of our state’s largest city, there is no version of today that does not show the blatant abuses of power of the Trump administration,” she said.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) was arrested for trespassing at the protest.
Ocasio-Cortez specifically called out DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Trump border czar Tom Homan in her video.
“If anyone’s breaking the law in this situation, it’s not members of Congress, it’s the Department of Homeland Security,” the lawmaker said. “It’s people like Tom Homan and Secretary Kristi Noem.”
She claimed DHS is using “public intimidation” because “they cannot come for us all” and she warned there’d be a “problem” should her colleagues actually end up in cuffs.
“You lay a finger on someone, on Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman… or any of the representatives that were there, you lay a finger on them, we are going to have a problem,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Because the people who are breaking the law are the people not abiding by it.”
Watch above via Fox News.
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