News Opinons Politics

Fact Check: Ocasio-Cortez Says Democrats Must Rally Behind Biden Because ‘We Have Had Kids in Cages’

CLAIM: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said during an April appearance on The View that Democrats must rally behind Joe Biden (D), the Democrat Party’s presumptive nominee, because it is an issue of “life and death,” stating, “We have had kids in cages.”

VERDICT: The “cages” Democrats frequently refer to — chain-link enclosures in certain border facilities — were set up during the Obama-Biden administration, virtually diminishing one of the main reasons Ocasio-Cortez believes it is important for Democrats to support Biden.

Ocasio-Cortez appealed to the false left-wing talking point during an April 15 appearance on the The View in response to cohost Whoopi Goldberg, who asked the lawmaker, “Do you think it’s time to have a conversation with Joe?”


“Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, I think right now just the stakes are too high when it comes to another four years of Trump,” Ocasio-Cortez said, stating that her community “especially” has been impacted.

“And it’s, you know, for a lot of communities, this is an issue of life and death. We have had kids in cages,” she claimed, also criticizing the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.


Dem gubernatorial candidate racked up eye-popping travel bill as AG during 400+ days traveling out of state
Trump floats dragging Congress back during spring recess to end shutdown — but one hurdle stands in the way
Wild bodycam video shows cops storm chaotic teen ‘takeover’ as businesses trashed: ‘They come to fight’
NFL Star Comes to Defense of NBA Player Who Was Cut for Biblical Comments: ‘The World Calls Us Crazy’
On July 1, A Florida Airport Will Officially Become Donald J. Trump Int’l Airport and Get Corresponding New Airport Code
Missing paddleboarder found dead in Old Tampa Bay after a weekend disappearance near the causeway
Dem lawmaker sparks online firestorm after saying Iryna Zarutska mural doesn’t align with city’s values
Former San Francisco Human Rights Commission leader accused of ‘self-dealing,’ public corruption
Ground Stops Ordered for DC-Area Airports
Vance: White House Plans to ‘Go After’ Ilhan Omar for Alleged Immigration Fraud
NYC Dem, Hochul aide under investigation over alleged migrant shelter bribes
Democrats pounce on $4 a gallon gas, blame Trump’s Iran war for ‘broken promise’
Woman Tries Getting Birth Certificate, SS Card, and Marriage License to See if Dems Are Honest – Says She Caught Them Lying Through Their Teeth
Trump Seethes After France Blocks American Military Planes: ‘The USA Will Remember’
Hegseth reveals covert visit to troops fighting in Operation Epic Fury

See also  Fox News poll gives Trump highest disapproval rating across both his terms

“I think it’s really important that we rally behind our Democratic nominee in November,” she added:

Despite Ocasio-Cortez’s insinuation, the “cages” she and her Democrat allies consistently refer to were constructed during the Obama-Biden administration — not President Trump’s. Even Jeh Johnson, secretary of Homeland Security during the Obama-Biden administration, admitted that existing structures were not invented at the start of Trump’s term.

“Chain link barriers, partitions, fences, cages, whatever you want to call them, were not invented on January 20, 2017, OK?” Johnson said during an appearance at the Aspen Ideas Festival last year, responding to the viral 2014 photo depicting the controversial holding facilities:

Johnson continued:

But during that 72-hour period, when you have something that is a multiple — like four times — of what you’re accustomed to in the existing infrastructure, you’ve got to find places quickly to put kids. You can’t just dump seven-year-old kids on the streets of McAllen or El Paso. And so these facilities were erected.


Dem gubernatorial candidate racked up eye-popping travel bill as AG during 400+ days traveling out of state
Trump floats dragging Congress back during spring recess to end shutdown — but one hurdle stands in the way
Wild bodycam video shows cops storm chaotic teen ‘takeover’ as businesses trashed: ‘They come to fight’
NFL Star Comes to Defense of NBA Player Who Was Cut for Biblical Comments: ‘The World Calls Us Crazy’
On July 1, A Florida Airport Will Officially Become Donald J. Trump Int’l Airport and Get Corresponding New Airport Code
Missing paddleboarder found dead in Old Tampa Bay after a weekend disappearance near the causeway
Dem lawmaker sparks online firestorm after saying Iryna Zarutska mural doesn’t align with city’s values
Former San Francisco Human Rights Commission leader accused of ‘self-dealing,’ public corruption
Ground Stops Ordered for DC-Area Airports
Vance: White House Plans to ‘Go After’ Ilhan Omar for Alleged Immigration Fraud
NYC Dem, Hochul aide under investigation over alleged migrant shelter bribes
Democrats pounce on $4 a gallon gas, blame Trump’s Iran war for ‘broken promise’
Woman Tries Getting Birth Certificate, SS Card, and Marriage License to See if Dems Are Honest – Says She Caught Them Lying Through Their Teeth
Trump Seethes After France Blocks American Military Planes: ‘The USA Will Remember’
Hegseth reveals covert visit to troops fighting in Operation Epic Fury

See also  Manufacturing has struggled since ‘Liberation Day’

Biden has also denied the Obama administration’s role in constructing the “cages,” telling Univision’s Jorge Ramos in September, “We didn’t lock people up in cages.”

As Breitbart News reported:

Biden claimed that the Obama administration’s policies were more humane than those of President Donald Trump: “We didn’t lock people up in cages,” he said.

In fact, the “cages” were built by the Obama administration to deal with a surge of unaccompanied minors who crossed the border illegally in 2014.


Dem gubernatorial candidate racked up eye-popping travel bill as AG during 400+ days traveling out of state
Trump floats dragging Congress back during spring recess to end shutdown — but one hurdle stands in the way
Wild bodycam video shows cops storm chaotic teen ‘takeover’ as businesses trashed: ‘They come to fight’
NFL Star Comes to Defense of NBA Player Who Was Cut for Biblical Comments: ‘The World Calls Us Crazy’
On July 1, A Florida Airport Will Officially Become Donald J. Trump Int’l Airport and Get Corresponding New Airport Code
Missing paddleboarder found dead in Old Tampa Bay after a weekend disappearance near the causeway
Dem lawmaker sparks online firestorm after saying Iryna Zarutska mural doesn’t align with city’s values
Former San Francisco Human Rights Commission leader accused of ‘self-dealing,’ public corruption
Ground Stops Ordered for DC-Area Airports
Vance: White House Plans to ‘Go After’ Ilhan Omar for Alleged Immigration Fraud
NYC Dem, Hochul aide under investigation over alleged migrant shelter bribes
Democrats pounce on $4 a gallon gas, blame Trump’s Iran war for ‘broken promise’
Woman Tries Getting Birth Certificate, SS Card, and Marriage License to See if Dems Are Honest – Says She Caught Them Lying Through Their Teeth
Trump Seethes After France Blocks American Military Planes: ‘The USA Will Remember’
Hegseth reveals covert visit to troops fighting in Operation Epic Fury

Originally, the Obama administration was “warehousing” children — literally — in overwhelmed Border Patrol facilities. Breitbart News broke the story of the surge, which was partly triggered by Obama’s policy of allowing illegal alien children who entered the country as minors to stay in the country (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA).

Even PolitiFact deemed it “inaccurate” for Biden to claim that Obama’s administration did not put people in “cages,” and left-wing Snopes rated the claim “The Obama administration, not the Trump administration, built the cages that hold many immigrant children at the U.S.-Mexico border” as “true.”

Ocasio-Cortez has a history of making controversial statements regarding migrant detention centers, setting off a political firestorm last summer after accusing the Trump administration of running “concentration camps.”

“That is exactly what they are. They are concentration camps,” Ocasio-Cortez said of migrant detention centers during an Instagram Live last June.

“The fact that concentrations camps are now an institutionalized practice in the Home of the Free is extraordinarily disturbing, and we need to do something about it,” she added.

Story cited here.

See also  Fox News poll gives Trump highest disapproval rating across both his terms
Share this article:
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter