AOC: Says We Have A Responsibility To Protect Pro-Palestinian Activists On Green Cards And Visas

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) went on MSNBC this week and leaned on the words of a “Reagan-appointed judge” to bolster her argument against Trump’s immigration enforcement. She never said his name, but the ruling she cited matches Judge William Young — now 84 years old and on the bench since 1985, nearly four decades on the federal court in Massachusetts, one of the most reliably liberal states in the country and home to multiple sanctuary policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

She tried to give her point weight by stressing the “Reagan appointee” label. But that means nothing today — Ronald Reagan left office in 1989, 36 years ago. Judges don’t stay frozen in time. William Young’s recent rulings have openly cut against Trump-era immigration and funding policies, proving he’s no conservative check, but part of the entrenched system.

Here’s what AOC said on MSNBC:

"Of course. And once you have — as you said — for a Reagan-appointed judge to be out and out talking about secret police in the United States of America in the year 2025, tells us everything about what’s going on. And we get to these extremes through these small erosures (not a word) and steps, when everyone says, makes an exception here or makes an exception there. And then before you know it, you have mass agents roaming the streets of this country that do not feel entitled to identify themselves or do not feel like as though they answer to the American people at all. That is dangerous.

And it is not without saying, it does not go without saying, that the people that they went after first are some of the most vulnerable activists in the United States, which is to say pro-Palestinian organizers and young people, especially those who are on green cards or on visas. And the idea that we would allow our freedom of speech to be violated and create exceptions to that for people who are advocating for the lives of Palestinians, it erodes at the very core of American identity too, because this is the land of the free, but only as long as we defend it and make it so.

And so we have a responsibility to ensure that these individuals are protected, including Mahmoud Khalil, who the Trump administration is currently trying to move to deport."

Notice the word she leaned on: “especially.” AOC is making clear that the activists she most wants to shield are not just young people or pro-Palestinian organizers in general — but especially those who are here on green cards and visas. In other words, she is prioritizing foreign nationals engaged in political activism.