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.


Not Only Is Radical, Senile Maxine Waters Refusing to Retire at 87, She Could Chair Powerful Committee Come Next January
Netflix Hikes Prices for Second Time in Just Over a Year
NASA races to build moon base as US challenges China in new space race
Soros-backed group among liberal orgs pumping eye-popping cash into Virginia gerrymandering effort
Scouting America moves to shed ‘woke’ label with major recommitment to military, traditional American values
Spanish government’s Jimmy Gracey autopsy claims stump forensic expert: ‘problem for me’
Texas Man Lashes Out in Stabbing Attack After Hearing Bible Conversation
Blue State Senator Admits How Democrats Prioritize Illegals in Resurfaced Clip
House GOP rams through new DHS funding plan with shutdown far from over
Facial recognition helped crack alleged student murder by illegal migrant – new bill could ban it: ret. cop
Schumer’s prized 2026 recruits won’t commit to keeping him as Senate leader
Trump administration locks out Greg Bovino from all social media accounts
Spanberger denies ‘deal’ with swing-district Democrat as gerrymandering claims abound statewide
Cruz warns ‘radical Democrats’ will ‘burn it down’ if they win back Congress
House Republicans pass rival DHS plan, setting up Senate fight as shutdown set to become longest in history

See also  Duffy predicts ‘worse’ wait times will increase shutdown pressure on Democrats

“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.


Not Only Is Radical, Senile Maxine Waters Refusing to Retire at 87, She Could Chair Powerful Committee Come Next January
Netflix Hikes Prices for Second Time in Just Over a Year
NASA races to build moon base as US challenges China in new space race
Soros-backed group among liberal orgs pumping eye-popping cash into Virginia gerrymandering effort
Scouting America moves to shed ‘woke’ label with major recommitment to military, traditional American values
Spanish government’s Jimmy Gracey autopsy claims stump forensic expert: ‘problem for me’
Texas Man Lashes Out in Stabbing Attack After Hearing Bible Conversation
Blue State Senator Admits How Democrats Prioritize Illegals in Resurfaced Clip
House GOP rams through new DHS funding plan with shutdown far from over
Facial recognition helped crack alleged student murder by illegal migrant – new bill could ban it: ret. cop
Schumer’s prized 2026 recruits won’t commit to keeping him as Senate leader
Trump administration locks out Greg Bovino from all social media accounts
Spanberger denies ‘deal’ with swing-district Democrat as gerrymandering claims abound statewide
Cruz warns ‘radical Democrats’ will ‘burn it down’ if they win back Congress
House Republicans pass rival DHS plan, setting up Senate fight as shutdown set to become longest in history

See also  Markwayne Mullin confirmed as DHS secretary with support from 2 Democrats

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.


Not Only Is Radical, Senile Maxine Waters Refusing to Retire at 87, She Could Chair Powerful Committee Come Next January
Netflix Hikes Prices for Second Time in Just Over a Year
NASA races to build moon base as US challenges China in new space race
Soros-backed group among liberal orgs pumping eye-popping cash into Virginia gerrymandering effort
Scouting America moves to shed ‘woke’ label with major recommitment to military, traditional American values
Spanish government’s Jimmy Gracey autopsy claims stump forensic expert: ‘problem for me’
Texas Man Lashes Out in Stabbing Attack After Hearing Bible Conversation
Blue State Senator Admits How Democrats Prioritize Illegals in Resurfaced Clip
House GOP rams through new DHS funding plan with shutdown far from over
Facial recognition helped crack alleged student murder by illegal migrant – new bill could ban it: ret. cop
Schumer’s prized 2026 recruits won’t commit to keeping him as Senate leader
Trump administration locks out Greg Bovino from all social media accounts
Spanberger denies ‘deal’ with swing-district Democrat as gerrymandering claims abound statewide
Cruz warns ‘radical Democrats’ will ‘burn it down’ if they win back Congress
House Republicans pass rival DHS plan, setting up Senate fight as shutdown set to become longest in history

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  Atlanta airport asks travelers to arrive four hours early as ICE comes to help
Share this article:
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter