At a Green New Deal town hall, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was heckled by two attendees criticizing her stance on immigration policy.
One was her Republican opponent Jonathan Rinaldi, who argued the Green New Deal is a “scam” and accused her of prioritizing illegal migrants over constituents by giving them public housing and $10,000 per day.
“My name is Jonathan David Rinaldi and I’m running for Congress against AOC. The Green New Deal is a scam,” one man yelled. “They’re giving the NYCHA apartments away, they’re giving illegal aliens $10,000 a day… I want you to debate me AOC, debate me.”
A second man yelled at her to “secure the border” and claimed she didn’t care about constituents affected by crimes committed by released migrant detainees.
“You haven’t said one word about violent Venezuelan migrants, illegals,” the second man said.
“You don’t care, all you care about is illegal aliens and their votes. You don’t care about your constituents,” he added. “That’s all you care about. You’re a disgrace.”
“Every single one of us is being sold out by people that have brought illegals here to vote,” Rinaldi said.
“You only represent the illegal aliens,” he said.
As both men were removed, Ocasio-Cortez defended progressive immigration policies and argued anti-immigrant voices are few.
She said her community supports welcoming neighbors and acknowledged America’s immigrant roots.
“Well, clearly I don’t, because I’m an elected member of Congress, so keep it pushing, bro,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Outside, Rinaldi continued accusing local politicians of intentionally deteriorating public housing to replace tenants with migrants through welfare programs.
“They just fired all the supers at NYCHA … so then the buildings go into disarray, so they can then come with Section Eight,” he said.
