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.


Eric Swalwell accused of paying nanny with campaign funds while she lacked work authorization
Breaking: US, Iran Exit Face-to-Face Negotiations with No Deal
Vance says US-Iran talks end without deal after 21 hours of negotiations
Poll: 1 in 5 Young Germans Plan to Move Out of the Country, Even More Imagine Living Somewhere Else
Swalwell’s Endorsement List Is Being ‘Nuked From Orbit’ After Sex Abuse Allegations — But Here’s Why Dems Don’t Get a Pass Now
Outrage: 8-Year-Old Playing on Her Bike Is Dead After Punk Revving Car Allegedly Hit Her – His Bond Was $1,000
Artemis II crew reflects emotionally on lunar mission after safe return: ‘Bonded forever’
Swalwell, Who Said We Should ‘Believe Survivors,’ Issues Denial Saying We Shouldn’t Believe Women Who Say They Survived Sex Abuse By Him
House Republican plans motion to oust Swalwell from Congress amid sexual assault allegations
Self-proclaimed ‘prophet’ with underage ‘wives’ exposed after couple he trusted helped uncover abuse ring
Machete-wielding suspect claiming to be ‘Lucifer’ shot by police after allegedly stabbing 3 at transit hub
DC Put On ‘Spring Teen Jam’ To Keep Juveniles Out Of Trouble — Instead, Eight Got Arrested
Minnesota fraud suspect skips court, forfeits bond, throwing $11M Medicaid case into doubt
America’s Northern Neighbor Going on Gun-Grabbing Spree
Army of Radical Prosecutors All Have One Thing in Common

See also  MTG cites 25th Amendment as she calls out Trump over Iran

“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.


Eric Swalwell accused of paying nanny with campaign funds while she lacked work authorization
Breaking: US, Iran Exit Face-to-Face Negotiations with No Deal
Vance says US-Iran talks end without deal after 21 hours of negotiations
Poll: 1 in 5 Young Germans Plan to Move Out of the Country, Even More Imagine Living Somewhere Else
Swalwell’s Endorsement List Is Being ‘Nuked From Orbit’ After Sex Abuse Allegations — But Here’s Why Dems Don’t Get a Pass Now
Outrage: 8-Year-Old Playing on Her Bike Is Dead After Punk Revving Car Allegedly Hit Her – His Bond Was $1,000
Artemis II crew reflects emotionally on lunar mission after safe return: ‘Bonded forever’
Swalwell, Who Said We Should ‘Believe Survivors,’ Issues Denial Saying We Shouldn’t Believe Women Who Say They Survived Sex Abuse By Him
House Republican plans motion to oust Swalwell from Congress amid sexual assault allegations
Self-proclaimed ‘prophet’ with underage ‘wives’ exposed after couple he trusted helped uncover abuse ring
Machete-wielding suspect claiming to be ‘Lucifer’ shot by police after allegedly stabbing 3 at transit hub
DC Put On ‘Spring Teen Jam’ To Keep Juveniles Out Of Trouble — Instead, Eight Got Arrested
Minnesota fraud suspect skips court, forfeits bond, throwing $11M Medicaid case into doubt
America’s Northern Neighbor Going on Gun-Grabbing Spree
Army of Radical Prosecutors All Have One Thing in Common

See also  Israel issues ‘urgent’ warning to Iranian civilians to ‘refrain’ from train travel

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.


Eric Swalwell accused of paying nanny with campaign funds while she lacked work authorization
Breaking: US, Iran Exit Face-to-Face Negotiations with No Deal
Vance says US-Iran talks end without deal after 21 hours of negotiations
Poll: 1 in 5 Young Germans Plan to Move Out of the Country, Even More Imagine Living Somewhere Else
Swalwell’s Endorsement List Is Being ‘Nuked From Orbit’ After Sex Abuse Allegations — But Here’s Why Dems Don’t Get a Pass Now
Outrage: 8-Year-Old Playing on Her Bike Is Dead After Punk Revving Car Allegedly Hit Her – His Bond Was $1,000
Artemis II crew reflects emotionally on lunar mission after safe return: ‘Bonded forever’
Swalwell, Who Said We Should ‘Believe Survivors,’ Issues Denial Saying We Shouldn’t Believe Women Who Say They Survived Sex Abuse By Him
House Republican plans motion to oust Swalwell from Congress amid sexual assault allegations
Self-proclaimed ‘prophet’ with underage ‘wives’ exposed after couple he trusted helped uncover abuse ring
Machete-wielding suspect claiming to be ‘Lucifer’ shot by police after allegedly stabbing 3 at transit hub
DC Put On ‘Spring Teen Jam’ To Keep Juveniles Out Of Trouble — Instead, Eight Got Arrested
Minnesota fraud suspect skips court, forfeits bond, throwing $11M Medicaid case into doubt
America’s Northern Neighbor Going on Gun-Grabbing Spree
Army of Radical Prosecutors All Have One Thing in Common

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  Putin issues a decree calling for a ceasefire in fighting for Orthodox Easter holiday
Share this article:
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter