AOC says fix for border crisis is giving legal status to illegal immigrants

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) appeared on the Daily Show with Desus Nice and said one of her solutions to fix the immigration system would be "trying to document people and create a path to citizenship." 

The clip of the interview, which occurred in October, has recently gone viral amid a record number of illegal immigrants crossing the southern border was seen in December.

Nice asked Ocasio-Cortez about her opinion on immigration issues affecting New York City.  

"Immigrants are the lifeblood of our city. Our mayor, Eric Adams, he said we can't handle anymore here," Nice told Ocasio-Cortez with accompanying laughter in the audience. "You represent one of the most diverse districts in Congress. What can be done at the federal level to help?" 

Ocasio-Cortez responded, "Well, here's the thing, is that I think... From all parts of the political spectrum, one of the biggest issues that we have when it comes to immigration, is that we have an undocumented population." 

"Now you can fix that by trying to build a wall," Ocasio-Cortez continued. "Or you can fix that by trying to document people."  

Applause rose from the audience as she finished the one-liner suggesting that the immigration system should just document everyone who has been coming into the country.  

In New York City, which covers the congresswoman's district, record numbers of migrants have been applying for identification cards in the city. In December alone there were over 300,000 illegal immigrant encounters with Border Control at the US-Mexico border.  



Last year, NYC Mayor Eric Adams said in a press briefing that the number of rising illegal immigration happening in the city is a "real burden on New Yorkers" and admitted last month that the Biden administration is not going to help New York with the crisis.  

AOC, on her congressional page regarding immigration, refers those seeking help with immigration to reach out to ActionNY. The page from ActionNY that her office recommends for helping illegal immigrants with legal assistance no longer exists or is outdated as of Monday morning.