If President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, thought he could intimidate Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., for holding a “Know Your Rights” webinar for her constituents, he picked the wrong Latina.
In multiple media appearances, Homan insulted her intelligence, mocked her credentials and claimed she was undermining law enforcement. And he said he was “working with the Department of Justice” to see whether the congresswoman was “crossing the line.”
Ocasio-Cortez did not back down. “This is why you fight these cowards. The moment you stand up to them, they crumble,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on social media Monday.
That evening, Homan confirmed he had spoken to the Justice Department about investigating her. But Ocasio-Cortez, unsurprisingly, is undeterred.
“In clear scenarios such as these, the best way to handle paper tigers is to call their bluff.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
“The Trump administration understands that it does not have absolute power and that it must rely on creating a false illusion of power to create a chilling effect to get everyday people to respond to fear, comply in advance, and censor their own free speech. Ultimately, in clear scenarios such as these, the best way to handle paper tigers is to call their bluff,” Ocasio-Cortez said Wednesday in written responses to my questions about the Trump administration and Homan’s tactics.
Homan “can baselessly threaten duly elected legislators with jail and throw around schoolyard taunts all he wants. The very fact that he is tripling down publicly is because he knows he has nothing else,” she added.
No matter how many times Homan goes on television, immigrants have rights protected by the Constitution. His latest obsession with Ocasio-Cortez is a political miscalculation.
With Trump’s anti-immigration machine ramping up its propaganda and actions, fear is spreading among immigrants. That fear is real, and how communities respond will determine whether they thrive in these times. Enter Ocasio-Cortez, with a possible resistance plan that Latinos and immigrant communities have been craving. As she told Latino USA’s Maria Hinojosa this month, “I’m not going to give them my fear.”
“Schools, churches, small businesses, neighbors, families, and everyday people have been clamoring for information and wanting to know what their rights are in the event that they are approached to be searched without a warrant or cause. They want to know what the law does and does not permit, and I am happy to present them with that information,” Ocasio-Cortez told me on Wednesday.
The country’s most prominent Latina politician is doing exactly what needs to be done. With people now impersonating ICE agents, the need for accurate information has never been greater. Politicians need to be there for immigrant communities, even if it means going toe to toe with the Trump administration. Ocasio-Cortez’s grace under pressure is what true community leadership is all about.
This could be the opening Democrats need to re-engage Latinos who have been waiting for someone to stand up.
“There is absolutely backlash occurring to the Trump administration’s actions.” The November election affirmed that Latinos have been shifting away from Democrats for a while now. Since then, there has been more talk about how Latinos got there and less about how to get them back. Homan’s prominence in the new administration highlights the problems Democrats still face. They are still a “Republican lite” party on immigration, especially when restrictive immigration bills earn Democratic support in both chambers of Congress. “There is a difference between a party benefitting from Trump backlash and a party that earns enduring support through a proactive agenda,” Ocasio-Cortez told me. “There is absolutely backlash occurring to the Trump administration’s actions, but the recent support among many Democrats of the Laken Riley Act, which guts due process and sets the stage for DREAMers to be deported on the mere accusation of a crime, demonstrates that we have a long way to go.” The feeling that Democrats still have a “long way to go” is what immigrant communities are worrying about. So far, the mood since January has been deflating and defeatist. Yet if Homan continues to target Ocasio-Cortez, she will just continue to gain more respect and admiration from the communities she is informing and serving. While immigration might not be the issue getting people motivated to vote, seeing Ocasio-Cortez’s fight to call out “the cowards” is a sign of hope. That you can fight and not let others dictate what you should do. The question is whether other Democrats understand what this moment demands. It is not enough to condemn Republican attacks after the fact. Democrats need to be ahead of the fight, showing immigrant communities that they are not an afterthought. That means challenging dangerous policies before they take hold, calling out anti-immigrant rhetoric as it happens and making it clear that defending basic rights is not up for debate. Enough with trying to out-Republican the message. “Ultimately, Latinos are a deeply working-class constituency that wants to see Democrats committed to fulfilling their promise for real, long-awaited paths to citizenship and a clear economic agenda on healthcare, jobs, and more. We have to not only build out that agenda but also communicate it better with our communities if we want to build majorities that transcend the politics of backlash and build more enduring support that is capable of governing,” Ocasio-Cortez said when I asked her about what her party needs to do to reset itself. Every Democrat who claims to support immigrant rights should be just as vocal, just as relentless and just as unafraid to call the Trump administration’s deportation policy what it is: a manufactured crisis meant to stoke fear and divide communities. If Democrats fail to step up now, they should not expect Latinos to wait for them. This could be the opening Democrats need to re-engage Latinos who have been waiting for someone to stand up.
Julio Ricardo Varela is the founder of "The Latino Newsletter" and co-editor of "Pressing Issues from Free Press." 
