As an unapologetic AOC fan, I am both scared for her in this new battle against ICE Director Tom Homan as well as proud of her for her fearlessness in response, though she had better be careful. As right as she is, she does no good if she’s battling to protect herself from criminal liability when she could be out here battling to defend others from wholly illegal action. That is how this all started in the first place. As is typical of Alexandria, she was doing nothing more than educating people as to their rights, and that got her in trouble with the Trump administration, which vastly prefers people (Voters and opponents) as being stupid and unaware of rights.
As provided in a report by Rawstory, we get the set-up. This is not criminal behavior and if it is then every law professor and law student must be arrested right now:
Tom Homan joined Newsmax on Monday night to discuss Ocasio-Cortez’s recent live webinar on Valentine’s Day advising undocumented immigrants in her district about their rights when encountering Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The webinar, titled “Know Your Rights With ICE,” gave migrants information on how to respond if ICE agents show up at their homes or workplaces, advising them not to open their doors without seeing a proper warrant and recommending they document interactions with ICE through video recording or note-taking.
Again, I fully understand the practical and objective differences in situations, but when looking at a criminal referral, we look at the exact type of underlying behavior, and if this is somehow criminal, then we need every dean of every law school thrown in prison for the same violation. Since that isn’t going to happen, I think AOC needs to borrow my argument and take it to the judge. (That will be $25,000 or at least keeping your head down and staying clear of even controversy, you’re too valuable). The underlying acts are the acts and the only thing by which to evaluate criminality.
Onward. Homan sees this as criminal but cannot even frame it correctly:
“I asked the Department of Justice, where is that line on impediment, right? It’s a broad statute,” Homan told CNN’s Dana Bash. “Because you can call it ‘Know Your Rights’ all you want. We all know what the bottom line is. The bottom line is, how do they evade law enforcement?”
Not a single part of this is evasion. It is all about confrontation, legal confrontation, where both parties act with the maximum extent of their rights and then the more legally correct wins. It is supposed to be this way in this country, though it is now threatened, to be sure. Now watch this man descend back to adolescence:
“Look she’s the dumbest congresswoman ever elected to Congress. And she proves that every day,” he said. “Bottom line is, I can’t remember any member of Congress — Republican, Democrat, Independent — who would want to educate criminal illegal aliens who are in the country illegally, been convicted of a violent crime and have been ordered removed by an immigration judge after due process and great taxpayer expense. And you’ve got a congressman — congresswoman — that does not want ICE to do their job that Congress has mandated them to do and funds them to do!”
She is one of the smartest, by far. But let’s pretend she was dumb, do you know how you sound by even referencing dumb-smart? She did what she did, address it how you want. Editorializing with “dumb/smart” is, well – dumb. And now AOC nails back:
This is why you fight these cowards.
The moment you stand up to them, they crumble.
Homan has nothing. The Fourth Amendment is clear and I am well within my duties to educate people of their rights.
He can threaten me with jail & call names all he wants. He’s got nothing else. https://t.co/XzUfeP634P
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 18, 2025
Fearless. And overstated – as appropriate. While it is surely true that she is protected by both the First and Fourth Amendment (First in speech, Fourth in educating people about their rights in search and seizure), and she couldn’t possibly be prosecuted on these facts, recall that this administration doesn’t give a fck about the law and will do whatever they want in prosecuting political enemies. So even though I doubt she has to fear conviction – I still have faith in the judiciary until it’s proven to me that I should not – even being prosecuted at all is both expensive in legal fees and emotionally draining. Plus, they’ll do it just to be alpha males about it.
So I want her to be careful. I love her standing up for both immigrants and herself. She needs to. I just want her to settle back now a bit. She is too valuable to have on the verge of arrest, things go wrong with this administration and we’ll see. But this is perfectly done as I would expect from this budding superstar. There is no limit to what she can do. Fearless.
God Bless: I can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter/X at @JasonMiciak and now follow me on Bluesky.
Excellent points, Jason! Homan stammers because he might just know that when he claims AOC is protecting “violent, criminal, illegal aliens” he knows he is lying outta his considerable ass! Most of the warrants ICE has been using are for general roundups of people at workplaces, homes, schools, and churches. Very few of these people, if any, are adjudicated criminals. AOC knows it and so does Homan!! 🤬🤬
Isn’t making a false complaint with the intent to harm another an actual crime?
I look forward to AOC’s inevitable suit against him.
Unfortunately R’s goal is to take everything to the courts where legal costs drain the resources of the falsely charged, monetarily
emotionally, and affect those electeds doing their job’s influence and reach.
Rock on AOC! That Homan dude is another MAGA blowhard. But please be careful. We need you in 2028.