AOC questions ‘billions’ spent on ‘corruption’, blames Trump’s divisive policies, and ICE weaponization
With the help of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Trump administration has been conducting raids across the country since last year, identifying undocumented immigrants, detaining them, and sending them back to their home countries. While this might seem straightforward on paper, it isn’t as clear-cut as many might think. What’s even worse is that the brutality Trump’s hired goons are inflicting on people in America isn’t limited to those who are undocumented. It is also affecting legal residents and citizens. Cases in point include Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.
In a clip from a January 2026 CNN interview that has gained popularity on social media, including X (formerly Twitter), Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) highlights this issue and more. She basically says that Trump has given ICE a lot of power, and through the agency, he’s trying to divide the American people to spread corruption and serve his own selfish interests. While her statements on the topic are from some time ago, they remain true today, given that the circumstances haven’t changed much since she last spoke about them.
AOC accuses Trump of weaponizing ICE for corruption
Currently, a clip circulating on X featuring Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has gained significant traction. As mentioned earlier, it shows her discussing Donald Trump and how he was using ICE to divide people. Additionally, she talks about how creating division helps him and other members of the administration, making it easier for them to engage in corrupt practices, which include looting the economy, enriching themselves, and passing corrupt laws.
Her exact words in the context were, “…If you can keep people divided, if you can keep the American electorate deeply divided, then you can continue to loot the economy, enrich yourself, you can continue to pass corrupt laws… It’s no coincidence here that this explosion in ICE funding is also a complete giveaway to the surveillance tech companies like Palantir and many others that seek to create billion-dollar contracts and enrich themselves off of a surveillance state that attacks the American people more broadly.”
AOC says Trump is dividing people to deflect attention from real issues
During the same CNN interview from more than two months ago, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused Donald Trump and members of his administration of trying to divert attention from their failures by engaging in divisive politics with the help of ICE. She said that their focus on addressing the undocumented immigrant issue in America was a distraction from more urgent problems that needed attention but were being ignored by him and his administration.
Talking on the same topic, AOC said, “They are trying to distract from the fact that prices have exploded, that people’s health insurance is being stripped as we speak, a trillion dollars out of health care to fund this state violence. This is what they are trying to do, dividing us, because they know that they are on their back feet. The Trump administration knows that they are failing, that their support is shrinking among the American people, that people are sick of their lives getting worse and worse, and they need to create flash points to distract and divide us so that we don’t have the power to organize to make our own lives better.”
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