Rep. Delia C. Ramirez (D-Ill.) is facing aggressive attacks from her Republican colleagues and other right-wingers over recent comments she made about her Guatemalan heritage.
Last week, Ramirez had traveled to Mexico City, along with other members of congress, to attend an event at the second annual Panamerican Congress held in the Mexican capital. Speaking from a podium during her visit, a video clip shows the Illinois Democrat at one point expressing pride in her Guatemalan ancestry, saying the following in Spanish, which essentially translates to English as: “Let me ‘finish by saying a few words in Spanish’ because I’m a ‘proud Guatemalan before I am an American.’”
Republicans have expressed outrage over Ramirez’s comments after a seven-second clip of her remarks from the event made rounds on social media.
On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security shared the short clip of Ramirez speaking to its official account on X, formerly Twitter, with a quote attributed to President Theodore Roosevelt that read, in part: “We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance.”
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) misrepresented Ramirez’s remarks in a post on X, by accusing the Illinois representative of saying in the clip that she “puts Guatemala before the U.S.”
