WATCH: AOC Says Ending Chain Migration, Immigration Lottery is Same as Closing Border

Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told attendees to a Town Hall meeting on April 27 that ending chain migration or the immigration lottery program would be akin to closing the United States’ borders.

“The administration is trying to lower the amount of family reunification visas, lower the amount of diversity visa lotteries, literally creating the paper version of closing our borders,” said Ocasio-Cortez, apparently misunderstanding the definition of the word “literally.”

President Donald J. Trump and his administration have repeatedly favored merit based immigration systems, where skilled labor could be brought into the United States, over “family reunification visas” which allow for chain migration, where one immigrant comes and then is followed by a potentially unskilled family, and “visa lotteries,” which allow individuals with nothing to offer to the United States to enter simply because their name was essentially drawn out of a hat.

The president described the current immigration system as “very unfair to all those people who have gone through the system legally,” and said that “Immigration must be based on merit,” telling his Twitter followers that “we need people who will help to Make America Great Again!”

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1010902506422046721

Ocasio-Cortez went on, hands flailing wildly, telling the audience that “And know that that’s not just about preventing people from coming in, it’s about preventing us from reaching out, and really taking advantage of all the opportunities of an evolving society.”

She also claimed that refusing to allow chain migration and lottery based immigration will threaten the United States’ position as a “global leader.”