AOC suggests getting rid of the Department of Homeland Security entirely

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York suggested that she would be open to eliminating the Department of Homeland Security entirely during an interview with David Remnick on New Yorker Radio.

As Ocasio-Cortez was pointing out that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was under Homeland Security and not the Department of Justice, Remnick asked if she would get rid of DHS, not just ICE.

"I think so," Ocasio-Cortez replied. "I think we need to undo a lot of the egregious—a lot of the egregious mistakes that the Bush administration did. I feel like we are at a very—it's a very qualified and supported position, at least in terms of evidence, and in terms of being able to make the argument that we never should've created DHS in the early 2000s."

Ocasio-Cortez asserted that DHS, established in the years following the September 11 terrorist attack, is one of a number of "different institutions that were frankly very large threats to American civil liberties."

She expressed opposition to the detainment of immigrants who have not committed any other crime besides crossing the border illegally.

The full interview can be heard on NPR's website.

The congresswoman's comments come in the context of her longstanding opposition to ICE and illegal immigrant detention, most recently her characterizing detention facilities as "concentration camps."

Ocasio-Cortez recently visited a few of the facilities in southern Texas, and came away making some serious accusations against Border Patrol agents, such as that they forced women to drink from toilet bowls. She also characterized them as "physically and sexually threatening" toward her, and said she did not feel safe from them while touring the facility.

(H/T Fox News)