Suggesting that the United States was violating human rights, AOC said, “So we as members of the United Nations signed on into an international human rights agreement, saying very clearly that family separation is a violation of international human rights, and we pursued a policy that violates human rights. You know, Mr. Chair, I was looking, how did we get to this point?”

Firing back, Homan defended his “zero-tolerance” policy, telling AOC, “I recommend a zero-tolerance … the same as is whatever US citizen, parent gets arrested when they’re with a child.” However, the “Squad” member didn’t seem to acknowledge this argument from Homan that illegal immigrants were being treated equally to American citizens who broke the law. “If I get arrested for DUI and I have a young child in a car, I’m gonna be separated. When I was a police officer in New York and I arrested a father for domestic violence, I separated that father from the family,” he said.

AOC replied, “Mr. Homan, with all due respect, legal asylees are not charged with any crime.” Citing United States law, Homan confirmed that unlawfully crossing the border, whether seeking asylum or not, is still a crime if an asylum seeker doesn’t go through a legal port of entry. “When you’re in the country illegally, it’s violation eight United States Code, 1325,” Homan said, citing the specific law.

The progressive congresswoman attempted to rebuke Homan by claiming, “Seeking asylum is legal.” Homan astutely pointed out, “If you want to seek asylum and go to the port of entry. Do it the legal way.” At this point, Ocasio Cortez was beginning to appear visibly frustrated with Homan continually shutting down her argument with facts about U.S. law. “The Attorney General of the United States and made that clear,” Homan added.

The Tribune reported on other comments from Homan where he maintained that local leaders who were interfering with the incoming Trump administration’s deportation efforts would face jail time. He said, “You’re absolutely breaking the law. All he has to do is look at Arizona versus U.S. you’ll see that he’s breaking law. But look me and the Denver mayor, we agree on one thing, he’s willing to go in jail.”

Watch a clip from the congressional hearing below:

“I’m willing to put him in jail because there’s a statute of his title eight in the United States, code 1324, triple i,” Homan continued, “What it says is it’s a felony if you knowingly harbor and conceal from immigration authorities, there’s also a felony to impede a federal law enforcement officer, so if he doesn’t want to help that’s fine, he can get the hell out of the way, but we’re going to go do the job.”