New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appears to be very concerned following reports that she could become a target of a federal investigation for allegedly aiding and abetting illegal immigrants in avoiding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) apprehension.
The controversial Democrat penned a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi this week demanding to know whether she was the subject of such an investigation after border czar Tom Homan announced he had referred her to the Justice Department for potential criminal charges.
“I write to request clarity on whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) has yielded to political pressure and attempts to weaponize the agency against elected officials whose speech they disagree with. Over the past two weeks, ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan has gone on multiple forums threatening political prosecution against me, citing resources I distributed informing my constituents and the American public of their constitutional and legal rights,” she said to begin her letter.
“On February 13, 2025, Mr. Homan announced that he had asked the Deputy Attorney General to open an investigation, and that I will be ‘in trouble now.’ It has been 14 days since Mr. Homan first threatened to weaponize your agency, but I have not yet heard any referral from the federal government. Homan’s actions undercut core Constitutional rights and further transparency is necessary,” AOC added before quoting the First Amendment of the Constitution.
“Indeed, last week, Vice President Vance said that ‘we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square.’ Mr. Homan’s repeated attempts to use your agency to politically intimidate duly elected officials are a textbook threat to the right to free speech in the United States. Threatening criminal proceedings for exercising the First Amendment is itself a violation of the First Amendment,” she continued.
“Educating the public about their rights, especially in a time of rising uncertainty, is a key part of our responsibility as elected officials. A government that uses threats of DOJ investigations to suppress free speech is a threat to all, regardless of political ideology. Please respond no later than March 5, 2025, with an update on the Department of Justice’s response to Mr. Homan’s request and transparency as to whether my office or myself is actively under investigation for exercising their First Amendment rights and executing on our congressional responsibilities,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote.
The controversy began after the representative hosted an Instagram Live webinar titled “Know Your Rights” earlier this month that Homan believes may have been designed to instruct illegal immigrants on how to avoid being detained by federal immigration officers.
The webinar, which was done in English and Spanish, featured attorneys from the Immigrant Defense Project and instructed illegal immigrants on how to respond to ICE enforcement actions.
Her office has also handed out flyers advising illegal immigrants of tactics used by ICE and what their legal options are.
In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Homan said that he referred Ocasio-Cortez to the deputy attorney general for investigation.
“She wants to go out and say she’s teaching people the constitutional rights. Yeah, you can call it that,” the border czar said.
“We all know what she’s up to. She wants to tell these people how to evade arrest, how to evade ICE, and we still got child predators we’re looking for in New York and her district. People convicted of child sex crimes, people who’ve been convicted of rape, and she wants to say she’s educating them in constitutional rights,” Homan added.
“We’re trying to enforce the laws that Congress enacted. I believe she’s a member of Congress, so if they’re writing laws they don’t want enforced, I can think they got better things to do at a time, but as a member of Congress, you would think she’d want ICE to enforce laws, laws they enacted, that they appropriate us funding to do, and that’s what we’re trying to do, and she’s making it more difficult and more dangerous,” he said.
Hannity said that the representative could likely make a free speech case but asked, “When does it cross a line into aiding and abetting lawbreaking?”
“That’s exactly the question I posed to the Deputy Attorney General. I asked him to look into it. I said, you know, I know through my career someone steps in front of you and between you and the person you’re arresting or beating,” Homan said.