Ocasio-Cortez calls for ‘9/11-style commission’ to investigate Trump family separation policy

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Saturday called for a “9/11-style commission” to investigate the effects of the Trump administration policy that led to family separations at the southern border. 

The freshman lawmaker made the demand while speaking at an immigration town hall in her home district, according The Guardian. Ocasio-Cortez, who has become one of President Trump’s favorite targets, said if the Democrats win back the Senate and White House, the government should convene a special commission to investigate family separations.

{mosads}”The 9/11 commission, they were charged with the investigating and making sure they dug out every nook and cranny of what happened and how it happened in our system,” she said. “And I think that that kind of study is what’s going to be required in order to reunite as many children with their parents as possible. That’s the work that we have to do.”

The 9/11 commission, also known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, was launched in November 2002 to probe the “circumstances surrounding” the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. 

Ocasio-Cortez added that the U.S. now has a “lifelong” commitment to the children it separated from their parents, adding she believes “we have responsibility to provide mental health care services to those children for the rest of their lives.”

“Even if you separate a kid from their parents for two days you have already created lifelong lasting trauma,” she said. 

“It chills me to my core to think about 20 years from now, when these kids grow up, the story that they will have about America. That is exactly why we cannot allow this administration to define immigration policy within the United States. This is something that I think is going to have to take a 9/11-style commission,” she added.

The Trump administration faced widespread scrutiny last year for a policy that led to the separations of thousands of families at the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump later signed an executive order to end the policy. 

The comments from Ocasio-Cortez came at the end of a week in which Trump repeatedly targeted her and a group of minority congresswomen. Trump said the women — Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) — should “go back” to the “crime infested places” they came from before speaking out about the U.S. government. 

Ocasio-Cortez argued during the town hall that Trump’s rhetoric showed his policies had nothing to do with his views on immigration. 

“Once you start telling American citizens to quote ‘go back to your own countries,’ this tells you that this president’s policies are not about immigration. It’s about ethnicity and racism,” she said.