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AOC Is Asked, 'Why Are You Against Building A Border Wall?'—This Is Her Response
Forbes Breaking News
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10/6/2023
At a virtual town hall, one of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D-NY) constituents asked her why she is opposed to a border wall.
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00:00
>> Patricia from Parkchester asks, why are you against building a border wall?
00:06
>> Excellent question. Thank you, Patricia. One of the things that we have seen from the data,
00:13
now, border walls have been built not just under the previous administration, but they have been
00:22
built for decades, frankly. And what we largely see is that our issue with these walls is that
00:32
they are actually not very strong deterrents. What they do do is drive a lot of people into
00:39
the most rural areas who then often pass away or succumb to the elements. This is a humanitarian
00:48
crisis. And moreover, one of the things that we're seeing is that the largest concerns,
00:55
the things that people try to avoid most when it comes to building a wall are things like the
01:01
importation of dangerous substances like fentanyl, for example. But actually, the vast majority of
01:08
fentanyl is going through the existing checkpoints and they're being imported by Americans. And so
01:15
many of the primary issues that people are trying to address with a wall are not actually addressed
01:23
by a wall. It doesn't actually solve our problems. And it doesn't solve the problems that people
01:28
claim that building a wall would solve. Now, what does help are investments in science, technology,
01:39
and what helps the most is an immigration system that does not incentivize people coming by foot.
01:46
One of the reasons why we are having this issue in the first place is because existing US policy
01:54
deeply incentivizes a lot of people to come by land and to come by foot. And a lot of these
02:03
people would prefer to use other modes of transportation and other modes of access.
02:10
And so I think our primary priority is to reform our immigration system, update our visa system,
02:18
and also allow people to apply for asylum and be able to be initially approved. The way our
02:31
current system operates is that it forces people to show up at ports of entry in person on land in
02:40
order to apply. And so we want to be able, of course, to preserve the right to do that. Seeking
02:47
asylum is a human right. But also we want to expand people's ability to do that as well.
02:54
And so for me, I think it's just that we can take those resources and use them much more effectively
03:01
to actually solve the problem. In addition to the fact that there's actually an enormous amount
03:08
of environmental damage done as well, there are migratory species, there are so many other issues,
03:14
as well as US citizens who live on the border. Their homes can be damaged, there can be eminent
03:22
domain issues. People live there, land crosses there, and these are also people's homes too.
03:30
And so even just logistically, financially, it's not a viable solution. It's also extremely
03:39
expensive, requires a huge amount of maintenance, and is often ineffective.
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