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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attacks private prison CEO who named her in email responding to anti-ICE criminal activity

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attacks private prison CEO who named her in email responding to anti-ICE criminal activity

The CEO of GEO Group, a private prison operator, attempted to set the record straight on his company's operation of migrant detention centers on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and is now under attack from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., after an internal company email was leaked to the Young Turks.

GEO’s founder and CEO, George Zoley, sent a memo to employees on recent anti-ICE protests that occurred at detention facilities operated by the company, drawing attention to "illegal activity" committed by some protesters and citing Ocasio-Cortez's "concentration camp" rhetoric as instigating at least one of the protests.

Ocasio-Cortez responded on Twitter, saying she'd be "honored to go toe to toe" with Zoley, adding that "your entire business - the caging of humans for profit - is immoral & should be outlawed."

The email points to five incidents in which GEO Group facilities were targeted because of the company's partnership with ICE. Among them were the highly publicized July 12 protest at the Aurora, Colorado, ICE detention center, where protesters took down the American flag and replaced it with the Mexican flag, the July 13 Antifa domestic terrorist attack on a Tacoma, Washington, detention center, and the August 13 targeted shooting attack at ICE's San Antonio Office, where a GEO Group office is located in the same building.

Ocasio-Cortez has repeatedly smeared ICE detention facilities as "concentration camps" and claimed the U.S. is headed for "fascism" under President Donald Trump. She is mentioned in a paragraph about an August 12 protest at the GEO Group corporate office in Boca Raton, Florida, where a Jewish group called Never Again Action organized a protest comparing immigration enforcement to the Holocaust and demanding the company "stop literally everything they're doing."

"False narratives and deliberate mischaracterizations were the basis for these recent events," Zoley writes in the email. "Misguided individuals intimidated our employees and defamed the American flag at a time when we recently commemorated the birth of our nation and the 75th anniversary of our landing at Normandy."

"We continue to see false and baseless claims made in the media against our company and other government service providers," the email continues. Foley disputes reports that GEO's facilities are overcrowded, that they have housed unaccompanied minors, and that the company has "provided services related to the separation of families."

"Like all Americans, we are concerned about the unprecedented humanitarian crisis at our Southern border ... but we are disappointed by the historically and factually inaccurate portrayal of our facilities."

ICE and other immigration law enforcement agencies in the U.S. have come under persistent attack from the Left since President Trump pledged to strengthen the border and enforce the law. In addition to the incidents noted in Foley's email, anti-ICE protesters have interfered with the apprehension of a criminal illegal alien with a final deportation order. The mainstream media has also participated in attacking ICE, reporting a false story that immigration enforcement officials ripped a baby away from a nursing mother. Conservative Review's Daniel Horowitz confirmed with ICE that the mother in question was not, in fact, nursing.

Foley's email to employees highlights how dishonest attacks from the Left and specifically from Ocasio-Cortez have contributed to anti-ICE sentiment and in at least two cases have endangered employees of his company by inspiring violent attacks. Unfortunately, Ocasio-Cortez does not see any need to reconsider her rhetoric and is instead looking to pick a fight.


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