Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has unloaded on President Donald Trump, saying his immigration policy as one that focuses on "ethnicity and racism".
At her first town hall event in Queens since the president's weeklong bashing of her and three other minority congresswomen - Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts - that included a tweet advising they "go back" to the countries they came from - the freshman firebrand vowed, "we're gonna stay right here".
"All you have to do is hear what the president said this week," she said.
"It's not about immigration. When the president starts telling American citizens to 'go back' to their countries, this tells you that this president's policy are not about immigration, but ethnicity and racism."
She later told reporters, "He's putting millions of Americans in danger. That's what the real problem is, it's not about me, it's what he's telling people in this room and rooms across the country."
The Queens lawmaker also railed at the Trump administration's separation of children from their families at the southern border, and called for "a 9/11 style commission."
Australian Associated Press
