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Hispanic residents of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s district in Queens complain more recent arrivals are bringing crime to the area. Jackson Heights is a diverse neighborhood in New York City with a strong Latin American community in the middle of her electorate. But in the past year it also became home to asylum-seekers, up to 10,000 of whom crossed the border every day, bussed in from Texas.
These migrants set up unlicensed markets on the street with rock-bottom prices local shops can’t compete with, while others cause trouble at night. Longstanding immigrants claimed it was no longer safe to walk the streets after dark, and accused Ocasio-Cortez of abandoning them. The self-described socialist congresswoman is vocally in support of pro-immigration policies and said more work permits would solve the issue.
One local who was a volunteer for Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign said the Democratic representative was ‘never here’ and only cared about her national profile. ‘She completely abandoned our community… we all helped her get elected… after 7pm, you cannot walk around here,’ she told Fox News in Spanish. ‘She said she only cares about Washington and her money. Nobody loves her here anymore.’
A local man said Ocasio-Cortez should spend more time walking the streets of her district to see what it had become. ‘See all the people, all the garbage, people getting robbed – during the daytime or nighttime,’ he said. Another woman speaking in Spanish said she no longer felt safe in her own community due to the newer immigrants.
‘I feel very unsafe, truly. I’ve had three times someone try to assault me, try to pull… my gold chain,’ she said. A father said he couldn’t let his young son out of his sight because he had no constantly protect him from crime. ‘On the corner, every week, someone was killed, someone was bitten… a lot of people don’t want to come because they come with their families and they see that,’ another woman said.
A younger man who spoke English with a Latin American accent blamed President Joe Biden for the immigration surge and said crime was increasing. ‘There’s so much immigration. There’s so many Venezuelans, Ecuadorians, Mexicans that crossed over… due to Biden,’ he said. A Venezuelan couple who run a local eatery said they were hard hit by increased crime and competition from the unauthorized markets.
‘Everyone goes home early, closes early, because of the crime situation… We would ask her (Ocasio-Cortez) to do her job of taking care of this neighborhood,’ the man said in Spanish. His wife added: ‘We take pride in our place. We work really hard. ‘We are immigrants who came here for the right reasons to work, and we just wish that those who aren’t complying with the law would be held accountable.’
Ramses Frias, a former Democrat who is running for State Assembly, said the neighborhood had deteriorated and was now dull of crime and overflowing rubbish. ‘Brick-and-mortar businesses are suffering a lot,’ he said. ‘We have a lot of closed doors, a lot of businesses that are just closing every single day because they can’t compete with the prices of… the street vendors outside are giving everyone.’
Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement to Fox News that the unlicensed markets could be fixed by allowing more asylum-seekers to work legally. ‘What we are seeing here is the result of anti-immigrant policies that deny immigrants proper work permits and vending licenses, and drive them into the shadows of undignified conditions,’ she said. ‘This is just one way of many that anti-immigrant policies hurt all of us. Paths to citizenship and work documentation can solve this problem – but Republicans would rather block those so they can film people in their worst moments for views.’ Read the full story:
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