President Donald Trump's Border Czar, Tom Homan, accused New York Democrat Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of impeding U.S. immigration law enforcement efforts after she was caught advising illegal aliens on how to avoid deportation.
Homan told Fox News, "Impediment is impediment in my opinion," when asked if her actions were "crossing the line" and noted that he was "working with the Department of Justice to find out."
According to 8 US Code 1324 1/A/iv: "Any person who— encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law; or engages in any conspiracy to commit any of the preceding acts, or aids or abets the commission of any of the preceding acts, shall be punished."
AOC hosted the "Know Your Rights With ICE" webinar live on her Facebook page on Feb. 12, which provided illegals in her NY congressional district with information on how to handle Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent search requests at their homes or workplaces.
She told illegals viewing the webinar, “When one of these things [raids] comes to your backyard, you can resist, and when that happens over millions of people, is that you generate enough friction that they cannot go as fast as they want to go,” so it slows down ICE raids.
"Believe it or not, in America, EVERYONE has rights," Ocasio-Cortez later posted on her X account.
Homan questioned whether AOC's behavior constituted obstruction of immigration enforcement and asked the DOJ for clarification on whether her acts could be considered unlawful interference.
“I sent a letter today to the deputy attorney general. At what level is that impediment? Is that impediment? I’m not an attorney. I’m not a prosecutor. Is that impeding our law enforcement efforts? If so, what are we going to do about it?" asked Homan.
The border czar further hinted, "Maybe AOC is going to be in trouble now."
"'MaYbe shE's goiNg to be in TroUble nOw.' Maybe he can learn to read. The Constitution would be a good place to start," AOC responded on X.
Homan has also suggested that President Trump may pull out all federal dollars from NYC to pressure the local authorities to comply with immigration law and finally end its sanctuary city status.
Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who recently saw charges dropped against him by the DOJ, told city officials not to hinder ICE agents from carrying out deportation raids.
The DOJ has not commented on whether it would investigate AOC's actions, but if they do proceed, prosecutors would need to establish that her webinar actively obstructed ICE operations rather than merely provided information to illegal alien residents living in her district.
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