Nation
AOC Commemorates Juneteenth By Calling For Reparations
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, R-NY, is celebrating Juneteenth by calling for a Commission on Reparations. The holiday commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States.
Happy #Juneteenth!
To celebrate, let’s pass legislation that makes Juneteenth a national holiday and enact H.R. 40, Rep @JacksonLeeTX18’s Commission on Reparations.
How are you honoring today?
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 19, 2020
Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter Friday morning, “Happy #Juneteenth! To celebrate, let’s pass legislation that makes Juneteenth a national holiday and enact H.R. 40, Rep @JacksonLeeTX18’s Commission on Reparations. How are you honoring today?”
COVID deaths are disproportionately spiking in Black + Brown communities.
Why? Because the chronic toll of redlining, environmental racism, wealth gap, etc. ARE underlying health conditions.
Inequality is a comorbidity. COVID relief should be drafted with a lens of reparations.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 3, 2020
This isn’t the first time Ocasio-Cortez has made the call for reparations. In April, she asked for reparations for minority communities amid the spread of the novel coronavirus saying that the virus is “disproportionately spiking in Black + Brown communities,” adding that “Inequality is a comorbidity. COVID relief should be drafted with a lens of reparations.”
President Biden freed two of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s relatives Saturday in exchange for seven jailed Americans. The two nephews of Maduro’s wife Cilia Flores, had been convicted in the United States for drug dealing and sentenced to 18 years in prison, according to the BBC.
According to the report, the swap was in exchange for five American oil executives. Those Americans were “exchanged for two of Mr Maduro’s wife’s nephews, who were serving 18-year sentences in the US on drug charges,” the officials told the BBC. Maduro’s nephews were convicted under the Trump administration and the Venezuelan government claims that they were “unjustly” jailed in the United States.
In a statement from the White House Saturday, Biden said the American’s were “wrongfully detained.” He said the American’s would soon be reunited with their relatives, according to reports.
“Today, we celebrate that seven families will be whole once more. To all the families who are still suffering and separated from their loved ones who are wrongfully detained – know that we remain dedicated to securing their release,” the Biden statement added.
Meanwhile, 13 Republican members of Congress sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, requesting more information on “the intelligence report” that alleges Maduro is emptying his prisons and allowing them to head to the United States in the caravans that crossing the porous border.
The letter states that the report warns Border Patrol agents to be on the look-out for “violent criminals from Venezuela among the migrant caravans heading towards the U.S.-Mexico border.”
“It has been widely reported that the Venezuelan regime, under the control of Nicolás Maduro Moros, is deliberately releasing violent prisoners early, including inmates convicted of ‘murder, rape, and extortion,’ and pushing them to join caravans heading to the United States,” the letter states.
You can follow Sara A. Carter on Twitter @SaraCarterDC.
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