'He picked the wrong Latina': Trump border czar warned he's stumbled into brutal fight
President Donald Trump's "border Czar" Tom Homan, who has been tasked with deporting millions of undocumented migrants from the United States, made an enemy out of "the wrong Latina" when he went after Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), argued MSNBC columnist Julio Ricardo Varela.
Homan has repeatedly made a point of threatening AOC with a Justice Department investigation for hosting a webinar to teach undocumented migrants how to respond if they're confronted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. The webinar is titled, "Know Your Rights," but Homan has suggested its purpose is to "impede law enforcement" from doing its job.
Varela wrote, "In multiple media appearances, Homan insulted her intelligence, mocked her credentials and claimed she was undermining law enforcement. And he said he was 'working with the Department of Justice' to see whether the congresswoman was 'crossing the line.'”
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AOC wrote on social media Monday, “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. He can threaten me with jail & call names all he wants. He’s got nothing else."
After Homan confirmed that he did alert the DOJ to the congresswoman's activities, she wrote to Varela, "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. Ultimately, in clear scenarios such as these, the best way to handle paper tigers is to call their bluff."
"The country’s most prominent Latina politician is doing exactly what needs to be done," Varela wrote. "With people now impersonating ICE agents, the need for accurate information has never been greater. Politicians need to be there for immigrant communities, even if it means going toe to toe with the Trump administration. Ocasio-Cortez’s grace under pressure is what true community leadership is all about."
When Homan started a fight with Cortez, Varela wrote, "he picked the wrong Latina."