Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez is introducing a decision that may take away Illinois Rep. Delia Ramirez from the House Homeland Security Committee, citing latest feedback the Democrat made at a summit in Mexico City.
Ramirez, talking at the Panamerican Congress earlier this month throughout the chamber’s August recess, stated: “I am a proud Guatemalan before I am an American.” The remark drew backlash on social media.
Gimenez instructed NCS on Friday he was shifting to strip his colleague from her committee assignment as a result of he views her conduct as “unbecoming of any member of Congress.” The Florida congressman’s decision is privileged, that means it’s going to obtain a full vote within the House as soon as lawmakers return in September.
“I was born Cuba and was exiled from my homeland shortly after the Communist takeover. Everything I am, I owe to this exceptional country of limitless opportunities,” Gimenez stated partly in a press release.
He added that “when a Member of Congress openly declares allegiance to a foreign nation over the United States, it is not only unacceptable — it is disqualifying for service on a committee tasked with securing our homeland.”
In response to the decision, Ramirez stated she “saw this coming.”
“It’s not normal, but it’s predictable,” the congresswoman instructed NCS in a press release. “I am the most progressive member of Congress on the Committee on Homeland Security. I speak out and was the first to call for (Homeland Security Secretary Kristi) Noem’s resignation for the many ways she is violating our civil rights and undermining the Constitution.”
Ramirez urged President Donald Trump’s administration and her Republican colleagues have criticized her “because they hate what I stand for.”
“I represent diversity, I fight for equity, and I demand inclusion,” she stated in her assertion. “They will use any opportunity to misconstrue what I said and weaponize it to attack me. I have and will continue to use my voice, my heritage, and my experience to defend everyone in America, our Constitution, and our rights.”
Addressing on Monday the blowback she had obtained for the comment, Ramirez, an American citizen born to Guatemalan immigrants, argued that “honoring (her) Guatemalan ancestry only strengthens (her) commitment to America.”
“No one questions when my white colleagues identify as Irish-American, Italian-American, or Ukrainian-American to honor their ancestry. I’ve consistently expressed pride in my heritage and history – a pride also often reflected in the origin stories of my colleagues,” she said at the time.
Ramirez shouldn’t be the one Democrat who may very well be faraway from the House Homeland Security Committee in September. GOP Rep. Clay Higgins has launched a privileged decision to censure Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver, which might additionally take away her from the panel.
McIver pleaded not guilty in June to federal costs accusing her of assaulting and interfering with immigration officers exterior a New Jersey detention heart throughout a congressional oversight go to on the facility.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement makes use of Newark’s Delaney Hall, a privately owned, 1,000-bed facility, as a detention heart.
Democrats – together with New Jersey Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez – who had been with McIver on the detention heart that day, have criticized the arrest and disputed the costs. McIver has vowed to battle the costs.