Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York issued a four-part plan to address the immigration crisis Wednesday, days after her visits to Texas immigrant detention facilities stirred up more controversy about the conditions.

Ocasio-Cortez, before detailing her plan, accused the Republican Party of using cruelty as a deterrent to future immigrants attempting to come to the U.S.

"The cruelty is the goal," Ocasio-Cortez wrote. "It's called 'deterrence'—a policy stance that if our country inflicts enough pain on refugees, they will think twice before believing America is worth their dreams. Only policy change can end cruelty, not blank checks to the status quo."

What's her plan?

Ocasio-Cortez focused on four areas to change the immigration situation: Foreign policy, climate change, border policy, and the economy.

On foreign policy, she proposed that the U.S. resume humanitarian aid to countries where immigrants are fleeing from.

"The U.S. should start acting like a real partner in Latin America and increase visas where we intervene," she wrote.

She brought up her Green New Deal as another way to prevent the need for mass migration from Mexico and Central America.

"There is broad consensus from military to activists that resource strains (droughts, famine, etc.) and natural disasters are drivers of refugees," she wrote. "People are fleeing places that were once livable and are no longer. It will get worse the longer we do nothing."

The third part of her plan is decriminalize illegal border crossings, something that has been supported by several Democratic presidential candidates.

"We have to take these proceedings out of criminal code and into civil code," Ocasio-Cortez wrote. "Torture accomplished nothing."

Her fourth proposal focused on improving the economy of the United States, although it's not clear how this part of the plan deals with what's going on at the southern U.S. border.

"We need large-scale public investment to spur job creation for citizens and immigrants alike," Ocasio-Cortez said. Ideally that investment transitions us to a sustainable economy (climate and income-wise). We are overdue to rebuild American infrastructure and it's going to take ALL of us and immigrants to do it."





(H/T Washington Examiner)