WASHINGTON — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan have been engaged in an escalating and, at times, personal quarrel over immigration, putting a spotlight the potential spats to come between local officials in blue states and the White House as it carries out its plan for the “largest deportation” in history.
Homan threatened Ocasio-Cortez with Department of Justice scrutiny and called her the “dumbest congresswoman ever elected to Congress,” while the New York Democrat fought to educate undocumented immigrants on their legal rights and mocked Homan for being unfamiliar with constitutional protections.
The dayslong feud between the New York Democrat and one of Trump’s top border officials – sparked when she hosted a webinar seeking to teach immigrants in the country illegally how to handle an encounter with ICE – entered new territory on Tuesday when Ocasio-Cortez appeared to attempt to bring Vice President JD Vance into the fold.
In a post on X, the House Democrat quoted a post from Vance about free speech, accusing him of having “lied to the world in Munich.” The vice president delivered a speech at the Munich Security Conference last week in which he warned European leaders about a “retreat” of free speech across the continent.
“If this administration believed in free speech as you claimed, its leaders wouldn’t be threatening members of Congress with criminal investigations for educating the public of their Constitutional rights,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote, including a picture of a headline noting that Trump’s border czar has called for a Department of Justice investigation into the New York Democrat over her webinar.
Homan first responded to the webinar by saying he was working with the Department of Justice to find out whether Ocasio-Cortez’ actions were obstructing local law enforcement in an interview with Fox News last week, adding she may be “in trouble now.”
The congresswoman hit back with a post on X, writing “"MaYbe shE's goiNg to be in TroUble nOw. Maybe he can learn to read. The Constitution would be a good place to start.”
"What she needs to do is read the statutes enacted by Congress,” Homan responded in an interview with Fox News on Sunday, noting that it was a “crime to enter this country illegally.”
The vendetta turned particularly personal this week when Homan called Ocasio-Cortez the “dumbest congresswoman ever elected to Congress” in an interview with Newsmax.
"I can't believe any member of Congress — Republican, Democrat, independent — would want to educate criminal illegal aliens who are in the country illegally, been convicted of a violent crime, and have been ordered removed by an immigration judge after due process at great taxpayer expense,” Homan added.
Ocasio-Cortez responded in a post on X by noting “this is why you fight these cowards.”
“Homan has nothing. The Fourth Amendment is clear and I am well within my duties to educate people of their rights,” she continued. “He can threaten me with jail & call names all he wants. He’s got nothing else.”
New York City, which experienced a surge in migrants during the Biden administration, has already seen removal operations carried out in the first few weeks Trump has been back in the White House.
It also comes after the Justice Department last week moved to officially drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, citing, in part, the need for him to stay in place to assist with Trump’s push to crack down on illegal immigration.
