AOC claims federal immigration law is 'Jim Crow' 'paramilitary force'

In a recent podcast appearance, Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed that ICE and federal immigration agents are a "paramilitary force," likening it to the Jim Crow era, where "you can point a finger and accuse someone of" being an illegal immigrant.

She told the namesake of the It’s Open with Ilana Glazer podcast that ICE is trying to "instill fear in people" and "trying to rip people out of their homes." She said that people are starting to create "exceptions to our values" in society when it comes to illegal immigration.

"We now have a paramilitary force. We don’t have a court system, right? They don’t need—they don’t think they need judicial warrants. So you don’t get due process. So you start creating this black box system," she said, "where you can just point a finger, whether it's like again, like we saw in Jim Crow, whether you just point a finger and 100 years ago, accuse a little black boy of something, you can point a finger and accuse someone of that today, if you think once you build that machine, that it's only going to be reserved to that, this eats profit" at detention centers. 

"It’s not enough to be a profitable business," she later added in regard to detention centers. "You have to keep growing those profits. And so once they’re rounded up every person in this country, who do you think is next?"

Combating illegal immigration has been a focal point of the second Trump administration, coming after record high levels of people illegally crossing the border under the Biden administration. It has been revealed that between January and March of 2026, American immigration judges processed 80,000 voluntary departure orders. The administration has encouraged illegal immigrants to leave on their own accord, even offering funds if they decide to leave.