Chicago-area congresswoman Delia Ramirez remains the center of a firestorm, after while attending a conference in Mexico City she reportedly said in Spanish "I'm a proud Guatemalan before I'm an American."
When Ramirez received a wave of criticism she pushed back against what she called "nativist, white supremacist, authoritarians in government." She went on to say, "I am both Chapina and American. I am from both Guatemala and Chicago, Illinois."
But Ramirez, shown above at a Capitol Hill news conference in 2024, did not retract or alter comments on which nation receives her loyalty first.
P. Rae Easley is founder and chair of Chicago Red and the Republican candidate for another Chicago-area congressional seat. She says Ramirez' district has a very heavily Hispanic population.
"She's been very active in speaking against the president and the deportation operation. She attends the anti-ICE rallies. She gives people in her district tips on how to avoid
ICE. I think that she's always has been anti-American. However, she has confirmed that she is anti-American. She's the child of two illegal immigrants, and she's married to an undocumented illegal person as well."
Easley says this is why something has got to change.
"Not allow people who are tied to foreign nations to serve in our Congress because technically she could be a citizen of Guatemala because she had two Guatemalan parents. So, if you are dealing in this dual citizenship thing, you have no place in our Congress."
