Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) blamed America's interventionist approach to foreign policy as a top reason millions of people have migrated to the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years.
In a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez said the United States needs "to be assessing the foreign policy decisions that we are making that are driving people to our southern border in the first place," particularly how actions in other nations have worsened conditions and triggered people to flee.
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"There is so much rhetoric out here blaming other countries and their dysfunctions for why people are coming to the United States when we are engaging in interventionist policy abroad and when our sanctions in Latin America are part of the picture here," Ocasio-Cortez said in a hearing about building shelters for immigrants on National Park Service land in New York.
"Democrats — we're talking about saying, 'Let's reassess our foreign policies so that people aren't fleeing, and, you know, making sure that we aren't participating in the destabilization of what's happening abroad,'" Ocasio-Cortez said, though she did not provide examples of countries affected.
Lawmakers gathered Wednesday morning at the Capitol to hear from four witnesses about a plan to house at least 2,000 immigrant men at an outdoor camp on the south shore of Long Island, near John F. Kennedy International Airport.
New York City Councilwoman Joann Ariola, a Republican, and New York State Assemblywoman Jaime Williams, a Democrat, strongly condemned the plan, which local lawmakers have also sued against.
"This past weekend, there was almost 5 inches of water covering Runway 19, the exact location proposed for housing the migrants," Williams testified. "This is not an isolated event but rather a frequent occurrence. This serves as a stark reminder to the potential dangers of Floyd Bennett Field. In addition. It's a transit desert and has no infrastructure, no plumbing, no electricity, no sewage system."
New York leaders and the Biden administration signed a deal in mid-September to lease the property for one year at $20 million and another $7 million in operating costs.
The city has more than 200 shelters housing immigrants at a cost of $383 per person a day.
"This is about putting 2,000 to 7,500 human beings on a property that floods regularly and is covered [with water] when we do have a climate incident like [Hurricane] Sandy. It is not a place that can house long-term residents, and it cannot house short-term residents. It doesn't have any type of police force," Ariola said.
The two local New York lawmakers said not using the federal park was a rare item that both Democrats and Republicans in the city agreed on and warned that overstepping environmental regulations to seize the land for shelter would set a dangerous precedent in the future.
"It's not about politics today. It is about our national resources. It's about opening a door to our national parks that can then set a precedent to happen in each and every one of the national parks and each and every one of your states," Ariola said.
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Ocasio-Cortez said the United States should anticipate continued migration to the southern border so long as it continues its foreign policy approach.
"We're either going to agree to those things and take on the responsibility of the consequences or we're going to reassess our policy," Ocasio-Cortez said.