Ocasio-Cortez was only Democrat to vote 'no' on bill to reopen government because it would fund ICE  | Daily Mail Online

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the ONLY Democrat to vote 'no' on a bill to reopen the government because it contained funding for ICE

By Megan Sheets For Dailymail.com

Published: 21:41 EST, 23 January 2019 | Updated: 00:02 EST, 24 January 2019

Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was the only House Democrat to vote against a bill that would end the government shutdown on Wednesday (above). The freshman lawmaker said she voted against the bill because it included funding for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency

Freshman Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was the only House Democrat to vote against a bill to end the longest government shutdown in US history on Wednesday.  

The liberal lawmaker said she deviated from her party because she didn't want to allocate any funding for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), which she called to eliminate during her campaign.  

In a since-deleted Instagram story, Ocasio-Cortez wrote: 'Most of our votes are pretty straightforward, but today was a tough/nuanced call.

'We didn't vote with the party because one of the spending bills included ICE funding, and our community felt strongly about not funding that.'

The bill ultimately passed 229 to 184, with only six Republicans voting in favor. If passed by the Republican-held Senate, the bill would fund the federal government through February 28.

Wednesday marked the 33rd day of the partial government shutdown as the president and Democratic lawmakers remain locked in a battle over Trump's demand for a $5.7billion border wall.  

Meanwhile, the 800,000 federal employees who have gone without pay during the shutdown will see their second missed paycheck on Friday.  

In a since-deleted Instagram story (above), Ocasio-Cortez wrote: 'Most of our votes are pretty straightforward, but today was a tough/nuanced call. We didn't vote with the party because one of the spending bills included ICE funding, and our community felt strongly about not funding that.' The bill ultimately passed 229 to 184, with only six Republicans voting in favor

Conservative media seized on Ocasio-Cortez' decision to vote against the bill and reminded that she had voted in support of another bill earlier this month that included funding for ICE. 

At the time, right-wing pundits called the Bronx progressive a hypocrite for calling to abolish ICE, the agency tasked with arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants, while voting to fund it.   

Trump rejected that bill because it didn't meet his demand for border wall funding.

Ocasio-Cortez has been a powerful voice on the congressional floor in her first month in office. 

She's taught a seminar to her fellow House Democrats on how to utilize social media, she led a march of freshman lawmakers to Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell's office to demand an end to the government shutdown. 

The Democratic socialist stunned the country last summer when she beat sitting Rep Joe Crowley in the Democratic primary.   

Her meteoric rise on the political scene took place on the backdrop of the Trump administration's widely-criticized zero-tolerance immigration policy, and thus her desire to de-fund ICE was at the core of her campaign.

However, Ocasio-Cortez has hardly spoken on the issue since becoming a sitting member of Congress.  

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