U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez held a town hall in Astoria on Feb. 5, during which she advised residents in the 14th Congressional District (NY-14) about how to respond to ICE raids and offering legislative updates from Washington.
The town hall, which took place at I.S. 10 Horace Greeley on 31st Avenue, also featured appearances from Deputy Mayor for Health Helen Arteaga, Council Member Shanel Thomas-Henry, Assemblymember Larinda Hooks and newly-elected Assemblymember Diana Moreno, who won the special election to succeed Mayor Zohran Mamdani in the 36th Assembly District.
Ocasio-Cortez spoke to constituents about a number of legislative updates during the event, noting that Congress has stalled funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
On Jan. 29, Republicans and Democrats in the Senate reached an agreement to remove funding for DHS from a package of six spending bills.
The deal approves funding for the treasury, the federal court system, the Health Department, the War Department (previously the Department of Defense) and other agencies until Sept. 30. DHS funding will continue at its current level for two weeks while both sides work out a new deal to fund the agency.
Ocasio-Cortez said she voted against a continuing resolution to fund DHS for two weeks, stating that the agency needs to be “shut down right away.”
In a Q&A section later on, Ocasio-Cortez said ICE must be abolished in the wake of the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. She also said agents found guilty of breaking the law should be prosecuted.
She believes that the “ground has shifted” on the politics of ICE across the country in the wake of the Minneapolis shootings, stating that “moderate” politicians are now standing up to ICE.
“This moment is very real, and so I want to thank you all for the organizing that you’re doing here,” she said.
Ocasio-Cortez said the Trump Administration’s immigration policies have had a “devastating impact” on families in NY-14, particularly in neighborhoods such as Corona and East Elmhurst. Ocasio-Cortez said some schools in the district have seen enrollment drop by 10-2o% because mixed-status families are afraid to send children to school and risk being separated.
“Families are so terrified of being separated that they are keeping their kids home,” Ocasio-Cortez told constituents. “In some schools, we are seeing one in five kids disappearing from classrooms… That, of course, has an effect, not just on that child, but on all the children in that classroom who just had a friend disappear overnight.”
Ocasio-Cortez also highlighted the importance of “tightly-knit connections” in the district to help protect immigrant communities from federal immigration authorities.
She described know your rights education as community preparation “101,” stating that it is essential that immigrant residents are aware that they do not have to grant access to their home if authorities only possess an administrative warrant.
“An administrative warrant is like monopoly money,” Ocasio-Cortez told constituents.
She also encouraged constituents to take part in legal observer training, which aims to train community members to observe and film ICE raids in the district. Her office will be hosting legal observer teachings with Hands Off NYC in the near future, she added.
Ocasio-Cortez further implored immigrant neighbors to have a “safety plan” in place in the event of an ICE raid. She said it is imperative that residents in mixed-status families take proactive steps to find legal aid before any ICE raids, noting that immigrants detained by ICE do not have the ability to find legal aid.
“But if you have counsel before you’re detained, your lawyer has to be able to see you,” she said.
A safety plan also involves having contingency plans in place to pick up kids from school and who to contact first if an individual is detained, Ocasio-Cortez said.
She further encouraged residents to file a privacy release with her office, which would enable Ocasio-Cortez to contact ICE on their behalf.
“Without the privacy release. I cannot intervene, because I essentially need your permission,” she said.
Ocasio-Cortez also pointed to the Senate’s recent passage of the Defiance Act, which would enable the victims of non-consensual, sexually explicit deepfakes to bring civil action against creators and distributors. Ocasio-Cortez, who introduced companion legislation in the House alongside Republican lawmaker U.S. Rep. Laurel Lee, is confident that the bill will become law and prevent individuals from creating non-consensual, AI-generated porn.
“It provides civil damages up to $250,000 for victims,” she said. “This is what will not just allow platforms to take down this material, but those kinds of stakes help prevent people from generating it in the first place.”
She also told constituents that she has recently secured $14.2 million in federal funding for projects in the district, including $2 million for ADA-accessible improvements at the N/W Broadway subway station in Astoria and $100,000 to support youth violence interruption programs at Elmcor.
