AOC shows how to fight back and stand strong
Other Democrats, from Schumer to Hochul, should follow her lead.
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Democrats in recent weeks have struggled to figure out how to respond to Trump’s torrent of unconstitutional lawlessness. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have been derided for their at times lackluster efforts to counter MAGA authoritarianism. Comedian Jon Stewart, for example, was deeply unimpressed when Schumer tried to illustrate the harms of Trump’s trade war by holding up a beer and an avocado. (Other late night hosts roasted him as well.)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, however, has offered a more productive and inspiring approach. Earlier this month, she posted an almost hour-long webinar titled “Know Your Rights With ICE.” The video, in partnership with the Immigrant Defense Project, offers advice on how to handle interactions with ICE, and informs citizens, legal immigrants, and undocumented immigrants alike of their constitutional rights.
AOC’s video — a fairly straightforward exercise in constituent services — enraged Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar/thug, who rushed to Fox News to threaten her with prosecution.
“It’s like AOC and others don’t want ICE to enforce the law that they enacted,” he said. “I’m working with the Department of Justice and finding out. Where is that line that they cross? So, maybe AOC’s gonna be in trouble now.”
Homan’s effort to use the power of the federal government to intimidate and silence political opponents is both dangerous and par for the course for the Trump administration. But it also demonstrates MAGA’s weakness.
For Homan, and Trump, free speech and solidarity are dangerous. Prominent figures standing up for immigrants and treating them as neighbors can undermine the climate of fear and xenophobia that ICE and MAGA rely on to impose terror. AOC’s stand for her constituents, and her public refusal to be intimidated, are models of resistance that other Democrats would do well to imitate.
Educating constituents about their rights
Homan’s comments suggest that it’s unusual and wildly irresponsible to inform immigrants of their constitutional rights. But of course it’s not. Numerous organizations like the ACLU and the National Immigrant Justice Center provide basic information about legal rights to immigrants and undocumented people.
AOC’s webinar advises people to talk to an attorney to determine their immigration status. It explains that ICE needs a warrant to enter a private home, and warns that ICE agents will often try to bully or intimidate people or lie in order to obtain consent to enter a residence when they do not have a warrant. It encourages people to demand that agents identify themselves (ICE agents will sometimes pretend to be local law enforcement), and explains that they should state they do not give consent in order to create grounds for legal challenges.
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Homan’s enraged response to the webinar inadvertently demonstrates that he believes that the Constitution and law are barriers to Trump’s policies of bigotry and terror.
“What she is, in fact, doing is telling people ‘don’t open the door, hide in your home, don’t talk to ICE,’” he fumed. Or, in other words, ICE cannot enforce its policies if it has to get warrants to enter homes, as the law requires.
Homan’s lawlessness also, of course, extends to his own efforts to threaten AOC, as the congresswoman was quick to point out.
Responding to a clip of Homan stumbling over his talking points on Newsmax, AOC posted on social media, “This is why you fight these cowards. The moment you stand up to them, they crumble. Homan has nothing.”
“The Fourth Amendment is clear and I am well within my duties to educate people of their rights,” she added. “He can threaten me with jail & call names all he wants. He’s got nothing else.”
In comments she made to MSNBC, AOC underlined that her webinar and her defiance of Homan are both important because Trump’s tyrannical policies depend on people acquiescing in his use of authority he does not have.
“The Trump administration understands that it does not have absolute power and that it must rely on creating a false illusion of power to create a chilling effect to get everyday people to respond to fear, comply in advance, and censor their own free speech,” she said. “Ultimately, in clear scenarios such as these, the best way to handle paper tigers is to call their bluff.”
AOC’s defiance has also rallied bipartisan support from unexpected quarters. Fox News legal analyst and reliably shameless Trump stooge Jonathan Turley had to acknowledge despite himself that Homan’s threats were “baseless” and “an assault on free speech rights.”
New York needs Democrats with backbone more than ever
AOC is showing that members of Congress can provide real, concrete help to their constituents while enraging Trump’s dunderheaded hench-thugs and making them look so bad even Jonathan Turley is forced to pile on. That’s the sort of resistance we need to see more of. Schumer and Jeffries should be taking notes.
Resistance is especially important right now as the lawless Trump administration expands its tyrannical, corrupt efforts to persecute immigrants in New York City. Last week, Justice Department official and Trump toady Emil Bove ordered the Manhattan US attorney’s office to drop charges of bribery and campaign finance violations against New York Mayor Eric Adams in exchange for letting Homan and ICE run wild in the city. That led to a stunning wave of resignations from lawyers in the office, led by Danielle Sassoon — a Trump appointee who clerked for Antonin Scalia.
Along with Sassoon, seven other lawyers resigned. Many of them, like Sassoon, were conservatives appointed by Republicans. And this week four New York Deputy Mayors resigned from Adams’s administration. They said that the corrupt arrangement with Homan and Adams’s orders to avoid criticizing Trump policies conflicted with their oath of office.
Adams, for his part, has lost no time in scurrying to fulfill his quid pro quo. Earlier this month he issued a memo ordering city agencies to allow ICE to enter their premises without a warrant in flagrant violation of city law.
Adams even appeared with Homan on Fox & Friends, where Homan explicitly acknowledged the quid pro quo. He threatened that “If [Adams] doesn’t come through … I’ll be in his office, up his butt, saying, ‘Where the hell is the agreement we came to?’” (Watch below.)
Many Democrats were hoping that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul would use her legal authority to remove Adams. She appears to have quailed at that step though. Instead, Hochul announced yesterday she’s planning to ask the legislature to pass measures providing more oversight of the mayor’s office.
That seems insufficient given Adams’s flagrant corruption and his collusion with a regime that is openly shredding the Constitution. Removing Adams wouldn’t stop the Trump regime’s grotesque violations of the law, but it would at least prevent the success of his corrupt bargain with the Trump administration. And it would protect the people of New York from a mayor who wants to turn them over to ICE in return for personal protection.
When Trump called himself a king and revoked federal approval for New York’s congestion pricing toll this week, Hochul pushed back vigorously.
“I'm here to say New York hasn't labored under a king in over 250 years. We sure as hell are not gonna start now," she declared. But those words ring hollow if she allows Trump to blackmail Adams so ICE agents can illegally flood the city, terrorizing immigrants and citizens alike.
Hochul is dithering about whether to use her legal powers. AOC, in contrast, exercised her First Amendment rights to inform her constituents about their Fourth Amendment rights. In doing so, she showed that the administration is tyrannical. She also showed that it’s weak — if you’re willing to confront it.
Democrats have power; they can thwart Trump and his henchmen. But they have to be inventive. They have to ignore hollow Republican threats. And they have to be willing to use the powers they have.
That’s it for this week
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This is a clear example of leadership, of courage, of conviction- AOC is not afraid of the bullying tactics of this despicable administration and is a shining light for those individuals under attack by the “border czar” -i despise that term! Take notice, Democrats, and follow her example!
Re: Hochul declining to remove Adams. Lawrence O’Donnell—I think on Wednesday night—explained how she doesn’t have the authority to do that. It was complicated & I can’t remember the details. Maybe you should look that segment up.