Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Criticizes Kimberly Guilfoyle’s Immigration Claims During RNC Speech

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., criticized Republican National Convention speaker Kimberly Guilfoyle on Tuesday after she implied her mother had immigrated to the United States from Puerto Rico. Ocasio-Cortez herself comes from a Puerto Rican background.

"The woman the GOP picked as their 'proud' Latina to tout 'immigrant experience' didn’t seem to know that Puerto Rico is already part of the United States," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “It’s quite on message, [because] it reflects their belief that Latinos aren’t real citizens, even when we are native descendants.”

During her RNC speech Monday evening, Guilfoyle, a former Fox News anchor and the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr., touted her multicultural background and said she was a first-generation American. Guilfoyle’s father was Irish, and her mother was born in Puerto Rico.

"My mother Mercedes was a special education teacher from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. My father, also an immigrant, came to this nation in pursuit of the American dream," Guilfoyle said.

In 1917, Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory, with its residents becoming American citizens. Puerto Ricans are allowed to move freely between the island and the mainland.

Cristobal Alex, a senior adviser to Joe BIden, also shot back at Guilfoyle's remarks.

“Someone should ask her how folks in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, feel about Trump,” Alex said in response to Guilfoyle’s speech. “He abandoned Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Insulted survivors [and] the more than 3,000 lost by throwing paper towels. Now we know he wanted to sell the island calling it poor and it’s people dirty.”

After Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in September 2017, Trump visited the island. During his visit, Trump threw paper towels into a crowd of people, an action San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz Soto called “terrible and abominable.” In September 2018, Trump falsely claimed the hurricane did not kill 3,000 people.

Miles Taylor, a former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff, recently said Trump wanted to trade Puerto Rico for Greenland in 2018, because the president viewed the island as “dirty” and “poor.”

"I did not take it as a joke," Taylor told MSNBC. "The president expressed deep animus towards the Puerto Rican people behind the scenes. These are people who are recovering from the worst disaster we've seen in our lifetimes, and he is their president. He should be standing by them, not trying to sell them off to a foreign country."

During her RNC address, Guilfoyle said Democrats want to “destroy the country” and “enslave” Americans.