U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the far-left, open-borders, New York Democrat, isn’t the only member of Congress who doesn’t understand U.S. immigration law.
Another is Representative Jasmine Crockett, the far-left, open-borders, Texas Democrat.
Like Ocasio-Cortez, Crockett believes that jumping the U.S. border is a mere civil violation of the law. It isn’t, but that didn’t stop the ignorant congresswoman from spouting the nonsense on MSNBC.
Not long after, border czar Tom Homan corrected Crockett. Yes, Homan said, as he has so many other times, crossing the border illegally is a crime.
Crockett and Ocasio-Cortez are not the only leftists who don’t understand the law. Neither do some journalists.
The import of their claims for the congresswomen is that their ignorance of the law could land them in legal trouble.
Example: Ocasio-Cortez. She illegally employed an illegal alien, who self-deported last week, as a top staff member.
What Crockett Said
Speaking on an MSNBC segment, “Trump’s First 100 Days,” Crockett unbosomed herself of a legal opinion that would-be illegal aliens who might consider crossing the border would do well to ignore.
“They continue to say things like ‘the illegals’ and that they broke the law coming in,” she said:
But what they are not telling the American people is that it is a civil violation. It is not a criminal violation to enter the country illegally. … It’s not a crime. Which is why they’re so frustrated, because they really want our local law enforcement to go out and round up people, when they could be looking out for the murderers and sexual abusers, as well as the robbers. They want them to go and round people up on civil accusations.
As he has so many times in the past, Homan corrected the legally illiterate congresswoman who, amazingly, graduated from law school and passed the bar.
“It’s a crime to enter the country illegally,” Homan said, a violation of 8 U.S. Code 1325. As well, he said, entering the country illegally after being deported is a felony.
“It’s really pathetic that any member of Congress doesn’t understand what the law says,” Homan continued:
They wrote the law. They enacted the law. … It is a criminal violation to enter the country illegally. … I had to educate AOC years ago during a hearing that it’s a crime to enter this country illegally.
Educating Alexandria
During that hearing, Ocasio-Cortez confused jumping the border with legally applying for asylum at a port of entry.
“Legal asylees are not charged with any crime,” said Ocasio-Cortez, perhaps the most famous bartender ever in the Big Apple
Homan: When you enter the country illegally it’s a violation of 8 United States Code 1325.
Ocasio-Cortez: Seeking asylum is legal.
Homan: When you want to seek asylum, you go through a port of entry and do it the legal way. The attorney general of the United States has made that clear.
Another far-leftist who doesn’t understand the law is CNN’s Dana Bash.
Open-borders Bash was questioning Homan about his recommendation that the Justice Department investigate Ocasio-Cortez for impeding the enforcement of federal immigration law. The congresswoman had hosted a webinar for illegals on her Facebook page. The webinar not only offered imprudent and very possibly advice that broke the law.
Bash closed the interview with this claim: “Being undocumented is a civil offense, and not a criminal one.”
The segment closed before Homan could correct her.
8 U.S. Code 1325 says the following:
Any alien who (1) enters or attempts to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers, or (2) eludes examination or inspection by immigration officers, or (3) attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the willful concealment of a material fact, shall, for the first commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for a subsequent commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18, or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.
The alien is also subject to a civil fine, but “civil penalties under this subsection are in addition to, and not in lieu of, any criminal or other civil penalties that may be imposed.”
AOC’s Illegal-alien Staffer
Last week, one of Ocasio-Cortez’s staff members, Diego de la Vega, self-deported.
The Ecuadorian illegal landed here when he was 7 years old, Migrant Insider reported. He enrolled in President Barack Hussein Obama’s illegal Deferred Action for Child Arrivals program (DACA), which protects illegals brought to the United States as kids “through no fault of their own.”
As an adult, he became a subversive political activist on behalf of fellow illegals.
“De la Vega became politically active after witnessing the failure of the Dream Act in 2010, when the bill fell just five votes short in the Senate,” Migrant Insider reported:
He started organizing for immigrant rights, first as a communications worker in the New York State Assembly, then for Make the Road NY, an immigrant rights organization. His first major victory came in 2021 when, as digital organizer for Make the Road, he helped secure a $2.1 billion fund that provided $15,000 relief checks to undocumented workers excluded from federal pandemic aid.
Ocasio-Cortez took note and hired him, and he rose to become her deputy communications director.
8 U.S. Code 1324(a) forbids the employment of illegal aliens, even by the federal government and Congress.
The law forbids “a person or other entity … to hire, or to recruit or refer for a fee, for employment in the United States an alien knowing the alien is an unauthorized alien,” the Congressional Research Service explained in a report about hiring DACA illegals:
The provision also bars the continued employment of an alien found to be unauthorized. These restrictions apply to any “person or other entity” that hires, recruits, refers for employment, or continues to employ an alien known to lack employment authorization. These limitations apply not only to private entities, but also to “an entity in any branch of the federal government.”
That law also criminalizes harboring illegals.
That means Ocasio-Cortez broke the law twice, although whether the former mixologist understands the law is doubtful.
