Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency currently enforcing the Trump Administration's family separation and detainment policies at the U.S.-Mexico border. She also supports immigration reform - specifically abolishing ICE, the U.S. She championed expanding Medicare for everyone, tuition-free college, criminal justice reform and ending private prisons. Ocasio-Cortez was initially thought of as a long-shot candidate, and her grassroots campaign launched extensive outreach to New York's 14th district constituents. She started working two jobs - one as a bartender - sometimes working 18-hour shifts to help her family make ends meet. Things changed for Ocasio-Cortez when her 48-year-old father died of cancer in the middle of the 2008 recession. She worked two jobs after her father died She came back to the Bronx after graduating and pivoted to working as an educational director with the National Hispanic Institute, helping high schoolers “expand their skillsets in community leadership and social enterprise,” according to her website. Ocasio-Cortez got her first taste of professional politics while working for the late Senator Ted Kennedy on immigration casework and foreign affairs. She studied at Boston University, receiving degrees in economics and international relations, and said she is still paying off her student loans. Leaving the Bronx every day to get a quality education was a wake up call for Ocasio-Cortez, who realized that “the zip code a child was born in determined much of their destiny,” her website says. Wanting to give their daughter more opportunities than Bronx public schools could offer, they sent her to a public school 40 minutes north of their home, according to her campaign website. Her father ran his own small business and her Puerto Rican mother cleaned houses. Ocasio-Cortez grew up in a working class family in the Bronx. Here's what you need to know about Ocasio-Cortez, a former bartender who will likely become the youngest congresswoman ever. "You have given this country hope, you have given this country proof that when you knock on your neighbor's door, when you come to them with love, when you let them know that no matter your stance, you are there for them - that we can make change." "This is not an end, this is the beginning," she said to her supporters during a CNN interview on Tuesday. Nonetheless, her stance on issues like immigration reform and the criminal justice system energized the local community. New York's District 14, which encompasses working class neighborhoods in both the Bronx and Queens, has always been particularly progressive, but Ocasio-Cortez leans even farther left by today's Democratic party standards. But to those who were paying attention to New York City's outer boroughs, the young liberal Latina's victory was not so shocking. Ocasio-Cortez's win was a surprise to the political establishment, given that Crowley was seen as a likely replacement for Nancy Pelosi as the top Democrat in the House of Representatives. Joe Crowley of New York in a major primary upset in New York City Tuesday night. All eyes are on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old democratic socialist who unseated 10-term incumbent Democratic Rep.
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