AOC Slams Biden’s Pardon for Omitting Undocumented Immigrants: ‘Where’s Our DREAM Act?’

Through Nina Zdinjak

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is once again campaigning for immigrants. In an interview with Pod Save America on Tuesday, AOC welcomed President Biden’s recent pardons but criticized them for barring undocumented immigrants at the time of their offense.

Photo by Drew Angerer/Staff/Getty Images

She stressed the importance of having a Democratic Party that fights for Latino communities and immigrants.

“The Democratic Party has not tried Latin American voters. And I mean where is our DREAM act? Where is our immigration reform? And even recently with President Biden’s marijuana executive order, I applauded very much that he went there, but he exonerated people when they were convicted without papers,” the congresswoman said.

“That’s 90%. We consider the overwhelming majority of convicts who would benefit from this pardon, they have status issues,” AOC added. “We really need to step up, both in our campaign efforts and in our governance efforts.”

The 2016 US Sentencing Commission (USCC) found that 92% of all state cannabis possession cases in fiscal 2013 occurred on the southern border, and 94% of those arrested were nonresidents, Marijuana Moment reported.

RELATED: The winners and losers of Biden’s big pardon messages

“I see these talks and it’s tough because on the other side they have no qualms about having an anti-immigrant message, but I think we’re getting scared of that,” the New York representative said. “And that segmentation prevents a clear message, and that lack of clarity makes it difficult to win people over.”

This isn’t the first time Ocasio-Cortez has spoken out on the subject. She asked the question shortly after Biden’s announcement. “If the US admits these laws were unjust, then we shouldn’t discriminate against pardons based on citizenship. Let’s get this freedom and justice for ALL,” she wrote on Twitter.

This is really great news.

And for people to truly be freed from having their lives plagued by unjust marijuana convictions, we must work to *delete* records beyond pardons.

Between that and the deplanning of cannabis, we can make great strides for so many communities. https://t.co/cJVAvyOM0n

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 7, 2022

Military members also excluded

It’s important to note that Biden’s pardons are estimated to benefit about 6,500 Americans, while about 40,000 people sentenced at the state level will remain unaffected unless state governors accept Biden’s proposal and do the same. Biden’s cannabis pardons also don’t apply to members of the US military, a White House official confirmed.

RELATED: Biden’s cannabis pardons don’t apply to the troops, but there’s a silver lining

With all of these “exceptions” to the pardons, it’s not surprising that cannabis activists protested outside the White House on Monday, calling on Biden to fulfill his promise and release those jailed on marijuana-related offenses. The action was organized by Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), the Last Prisoner Project (LPP) and DC and Maryland Marijuana Justice (DCMJ/MDMJ).

Watch AOC’s interview criticizing Biden’s pardon:



This article originally appeared on Benzinga and has been republished with permission.