Dems Are ‘Being Boxed in’ by Ocasio-Cortez’s Progressive Socialism

Democrats are “being boxed in” by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D) explicit socialism and her calls for abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and “occupying” its offices across the country, according to Fox News contributor Rachel Campos-Duffy.

“They’re being boxed in by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,” Campos-Duffy said Wednesday on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle,” warning that “most Americans believe in the rule of law and that if you want to reform ICE, you vote for it. You don’t occupy. You don’t resist.”

Ocasio-Cortez stunned the political Establishment in June by defeating 10-term incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), the heavily funded chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. The 28-year-old first-time political candidate is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and worked as a bartender less than a year ago.

After Ocasio-Cortez began calling for ICE to be abolished — a radical position formerly only espoused on the Democratic Party’s furthest-Left fringe — a handful of Democratic lawmakers joined suit. Ocasio-Cortez insisted Monday during an interview with Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman that Americans must “have a rapid response” if they want to see ICE abolished.

“We have to occupy all of it,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “We need to occupy every airport. We need to occupy every border. We need to occupy every ICE office until those kids are back with their parents, period.”

Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats ramped up their calls for ICE to be abolished amid the ongoing controversy surrounding the Trump administration’s since-scrapped zero-tolerance policy of separating illegal immigrant children from their parents at the border.

In retaliation, Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) crafted an “Abolish ICE” bill. But a Politico/Morning Consult poll found last week that only 25 percent of those surveyed believe ICE should be abolished, while 54 percent believe the federal government should keep the agency intact.

Related: Most House Democrats Refuse to Vote Yes or No on Pro-ICE Resolution

Most Democratic House members declined Wednesday to vote either for or against a GOP-sponsored, nonbinding resolution supporting ICE amid calls for its abolishment. Most copped out by merely voting “present” while only 18 voted for the bill.

Campos-Duffy said that Ocasio-Cortez’s victory “got the Democrats really excited because her election was just so shocking. And they kind of all pulled their masks … off for a minute. Mark Pocan, who represents Madison in Wisconsin, came out with a bill to abolish ICE. And everyone was really excited.”

“Then they polled it and they realized that the American people weren’t really with them. So they sort of pulled the punch,” Campos-Duffy continued. “So when Republicans put this bill forward, [the Democrats] all still want to speak to that base that gets everyone excited — the party of [Sen.] Bernie [Sanders], the party of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. So they voted present instead of for the bill.”

Liberal Fox News political analyst Juan Williams told host Laura Ingraham that Democrats believe ICE “is implicated in the separation of children from parents.”

Related: Most Americans Don’t Want ICE Abolished, Survey Finds

“And not only that, raiding communities, raiding businesses, making people extremely, extremely nervous about their status here and breaking up families,” Williams continued. “But the political maneuver here was that the Democrats — and this is the boxed in you were talking about — the Democrats initially said, ‘Let’s vote to abolish ICE.’ Then the Republicans pulled the bill and then came back with this latest effort, which is ‘Let’s vote in support of ICE.'”

“So, like, both sides are playing big politics here,” Williams concluded.

As for Ocasio-Cortez, Williams admitted that he doesn’t believe she is “politically sophisticated.”

But if the Democratic Party moves further toward the far left heading into the 2018 midterm elections and the 2020 presidential election, it could spell trouble for them among the voters, Campos-Duffy warned.

“There’s all this talk about Russian influence going on. But if you really think about it, the real takeover of the Marxists, the Socialists, the old Soviet Union is on the Democratic Party and on American universities,” Campos-Duffy insisted.

“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a product of a Marxist, Socialist, anti-American ideology that is permeating — and has for several decades now — permeated American higher education and now going even into high schools and lower,” Campos-Duffy continued. “That’s the real concern I have with Russian influence — it’s on the Democrat Party and on our education system.”