Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez compared President Donald Trump\u2019s border wall plans with the Berlin Wall – a Cold War symbol of communist oppression that divided Germany for nearly three decades.
\nThe New York Democrat made her remarks during a livestream video for her supporters during which she discussed the scrutiny she received since she won last year\u2019s election.
\n\u201cNo matter how you feel about the wall, I think it\u2019s a moral abomination. I think it\u2019s like the Berlin Wall. I think it\u2019s like any other wall designed to separate human beings and block out people who are running away from the humanitarian disasters. I think it\u2019s just wrong,\u201d Ocasio-Cortez said.
\nFirst and foremost, I want to take a look in history as to why the Berlin Wall was made.
\nThe Berlin Wall stood from 1961 to 1989 as a Soviet-manned barrier between East and West Berlin, and came to symbolize the Cold War\u2019s \u201cIron Curtain\u201d that separated communist Eastern European countries from the democratic West.
\nIts purpose was to keep people in East Berlin, the city\u2019s communist sector, from fleeing to West Berlin.
\n\u201cThe Berlin Wall was meant to keep people inside the socialist\/communist utopia and stop them from fleeing to the decadent capitalist west,\u201d Gad Saad, an evolutionary behavioral scientist at the John Molson School of Business tweeted.
\nPresident Trump\u2019s proposed border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, meanwhile, has been touted as a deterrent against drugs and human trafficking, in addition to a way to reduce illegal immigration numbers in the United States.
\nWhereas the Berlin Wall was intended to keep people inside the East Germany to prevent mass defections to freedom in the West.
\nNo matter how you feel about Trump\u2019s wall, constructing a national border barrier to prevent unauthorized access is self-evidently different from building a wall designed to trap people inside.
\nOcasio-Cortez made her comments the same day Trump announced during a news conference that he was declaring a national emergency so he could shift funds from several federal agencies.
\nHe\u2019s trying to get $8 billion to build his barrier after Congress approved only $1.3 billion.
\nSenior White House Adviser Stephen Miller was interviewed on Fox to respond to claims of the president overpowering Congress.
\n\u201cThe statute, Chris, is clear on its own terms,\u201d Miller said. \u201cCongress had appropriated money for construction of border barriers consistently. This is part of the national security.\u201d
\nThe stakes are high for the White House, which has struggled to see the new wall funding win approval in Congress.
\nOn Feb. 15, Trump signed a spending bill that included just $1.4 billion for the border security, which is far short of the $5.7 billion he requested for the wall.
\nThe compromise legislation, whereupon overwhelmingly passed in the House and Senate last week, contained enough funding for building 55 miles of barricades, not the 200-plus miles the White House has sought. The bill provided additional funding for 5,000 more beds that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could use to house illegal immigrants.
\nIn an attempt to pressure the agency to detain fewer illegal immigrants, Democrats ensured that the bill did not include funding for the 2,000 additional ICE agents, or the 750 Border Patrol agents requested by the Trump administration.
\nIs the border wall beneficial for the United States across Mexico?
\nIf we approach this from the mind-set of trying to stop human and drug trafficking: the answer is yes. By this we can limit illegal immigration and start having legalized immigrants.
\nIt is also unfair for those that have their papers and came to the U.S. legally who work hard and wait, while those that are illegal try to cross from different transportation depths that put their life at risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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