After border czar Tom Homan questioned if Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is "impeding" the Trump administration's deportation efforts by informing people of their legal and constitutional rights, Ocasio-Cortez dared him to "come for me" for exercising her right to free speech.
In February, Homan claimed on Fox News that Ocasio-Cortez may have broken the law by hosting a webinar to inform immigrants of their constitutional rights during encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Homan suggested that by educating immigrants about protections like the right to remain silent, the right to an attorney, and protection against unlawful searches, Ocasio-Cortez was “impeding” ICE arrests. In a separate appearance, he went further, accusing her of “trying to teach” people “how to evade law enforcement.”
At a recent webinar, Ocasio-Cortez made it clear she is not backing down:
"When we first did one of these seminars, Tom Homan, then acting director of ICE, said he was going to refer me to DOJ because I’m using my free speech rights in order to advise people of their constitutionally granted protections and he may want to do that again today and to that I say, come for me, you’re going to have to come for me. Do I look like I care?”
She also stressed how to “protect” each other in response to the Trump administration's policies:
“We do it by exercising and using our constitutional rights. Our rights are, ‘use it or lose it,’ so we need to use it."
"And we need to challenge them so don’t let them intimidate you into thinking that you’re doing something wrong by telling people what their actual legal constitutional rights are. There’s nothing wrong about it and there’s nothing illegal about it.”
"And if they want to make it illegal, they can come take me. That’s how I feel about it.”
You can hear what she said in the video below.
Many applauded her remarks and condemned Homan in response.
Ocasio-Cortez's remarks came the same day that Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers pushed back against what he called “chilling” remarks by Homan, who suggested Evers could face arrest for issuing guidance to state employees on how to respond if approached by federal immigration agents.
Critics on the right claimed the guidance amounted to an order not to cooperate with ICE — an accusation Evers firmly rejected. He said the intent was simply to provide “clear, consistent instructions” so employees could ensure they had legal support and complied fully with the law.
Evers accused Republicans of distorting the facts and fueling a “fake controversy of their own creation” for political gain.
