New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called out President Donald Trump last week for allegedly frightening illegal immigrants so bad that they’re not seeking medical attention. AOC claims that illegals in her district are hesitant to get tested for COVID-19 due to a belief that immigration officials might be lurking in hospitals, ready to pounce and deport them.
Ocasio-Cortez made the remarks on ABC’s Nightline. “He’s virulently fighting against healthcare protections for immigrants. He’s made people afraid to go to the doctor because they are concerned that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) will pick them up in the E.R,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
According to ICE’s website, AOC’s assertion is incorrect and that she, and others like her, are the ones creating the fear. “ICE does not conduct enforcement operations at medical facilities, except under extraordinary circumstances. Claims to the contrary are false and create unnecessary fear within communities. Individuals should continue to seek medical care,” the ICE website declared.
Several times over the pandemic, AOC has called people who wish to reopen the country “selfish” and touted a universal healthcare solution, claiming that the current healthcare system is causing people to “gamble” with their medical decisions.
“When you don’t have health insurance and you are scared to go to the doctor, your decisions around your own health become primarily financial decisions,” AOC said. “And it becomes gambling.”
The congresswoman accused the president of “contributing to the health inequities” of districts such as her own constituency (NY-14) by “targeting” them with ICE enforcement measures.
But if anything, ICE has curtailed enforcement activities during the COVID-19 scare. During the pandemic, ICE has suspended all in-person check-ins for the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) programs. They have suspended both office and home visits for the programs.
According to ICE, during the COVID-19 scare, the agency’s focus has shifted to a more humanitarian posture and is delaying enforcement measures that are not high priority.
“ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) will focus enforcement on public-safety risks and individuals subject to mandatory detention based on criminal grounds. For those individuals who do not fall into those categories, ERO will exercise discretion to delay enforcement actions until after the crisis or use alternatives to detention as appropriate.”
For people such as Ocasio-Cortez, ICE seems to be saying all the right things. So, what is AOC’s angle here?
Back in April, AOC made similar remarks about the president, accusing him of “xenophobic” response to the virus.
“Corona, Queens is the most heavily COVID-impacted zip code in America. I can tell you first hand that many people are too scared to go to the hospital and continue to work because of Trump’s xenophobic COVID response,” AOC tweeted.
Like seemingly everyone else in the Democrat Party, AOC is using the COVID-19 crisis to get what she wants. And what AOC would like is nothing more than the complete transformation of the United States into a socialist country. When asked what needs to be done about COVID-19 going forward, AOC said, “We need free testing whether you’re insured or uninsured,” she said, before concluding, “Why shouldn’t healthcare be treated as a human right in any condition?”
And, of course, Ocasio-Cortez pushed for socialist wealth redistribution in her own subtle way. “The great irony of essential workers is that have typically been underpaid, under-recognized and under-valued in our economy, and if there’s one thing that this crisis shows us it’s that our essential workers deserve so much more.”
In the end, AOC hopes that the COVID-19 crisis will create more recognition of what she and like-minded socialists believe is a systemic inequality in American society. “We all live in our own worlds and sometimes it’s hard to experiences outside of our own, but I think one silver lining to the crisis is that people are now recognizing the inequities that have been here all along — people saying, ‘Wow, I didn’t know it was this bad.’”
Ocasio-Cortez may be right in her belief that some workers are under-appreciated and under-valued in America. But that’s not an issue within the purview of the federal government. AOC is simply looking to create more victims in America, because for representatives like her, victims equal votes.
Photo: klenger / iStock / Getty Images Plus
James Murphy is a freelance journalist who writes on a variety of subjects, with a primary focus on the ongoing anthropogenic climate-change hoax and cultural issues. He can be reached at [email protected]
