AOC accuses Rubio of migrant surge, avoids answering if she and Biden will visit border.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Blames Sen. Marco Rubio for Surge in Illegal Immigration
In a recent interview with CBS News’s Margaret Brennan on “Face The Nation,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) pointed fingers at Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) for the sudden increase of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. She argued that his sanctions against the socialist dictatorship in Venezuela were the cause of this surge.
Ocasio-Cortez, known for her outspoken views, stated that she believes immigration is currently the weakest issue for the Biden Administration. She criticized former President Donald Trump for exacerbating the problem and then shifted her focus to the 500,000 Venezuelans who have recently arrived in the U.S. She advocated for granting them a pathway to citizenship, claiming that it would alleviate the strain on public systems. She then placed blame on Rubio for the situation.
“If we are constantly engaging in foreign policy that drives people to our southern border, in this specific instance, U.S. sanctions that were originally authored by Marco Rubio began and precipitated certainly took a large part in the driving of populations to our southern border shortly after those sanctions, those broad-based sanctions… we started seeing dramatic increases in these populations that were coming to our southern border,”
Brennan challenged Ocasio-Cortez’s argument by pointing out that dictator Nicolas Maduro, who has been the president of Venezuela since 2013, also played a significant role in the crisis.
Ocasio-Cortez suggested that the U.S. should reconsider the sanctions imposed on the oppressive regime. However, when asked whether President Joe Biden or she herself should visit the border, she avoided giving a direct answer.
Furthermore, Ocasio-Cortez dismissed the notion that allowing illegal immigrants to work in the United States was a driving factor for the influx of people coming to America.