Texas Congressman to Trump: 'Shove It'

Filemon Vela not a fan of Trump's border wall idea
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 6, 2016 5:10 PM CDT
Texas Congressman to Trump: 'Shove It'
US Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Texas, addresses an audience at the Congressional Summit on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2015, in Harlingen, Texas.   (Jason Hoekema/Valley Morning Star via AP)

More fallout from Donald Trump's claim that the US-born judge presiding over two fraud lawsuits against Trump University has a "conflict of interest" and should recuse himself because of his "Mexican heritage." Trump says US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel must be biased against Trump because of Trump's views on immigration and desire to build a border wall, and now US Rep. Filemon Vela, a Democrat from a border city in Texas, says Trump can take that wall "and shove it up your ass." The Houston Chronicle has a copy of the three-page open letter Vela penned to Trump. In it, Vela says that he agrees with Trump on some things (the State Department and the Mexican government must do more to deal with Mexican drug cartels; felons who came into the US illegally should be deported; etc.), but that "your ignorant anti-immigrant opinions, your border wall rhetoric, and your recent bigoted attack on an American jurist are just plain despicable."

Vela calls Trump's position on undocumented workers living in the US "hateful, dehumanizing, and frankly shameful," and says that Trump's own businesses likely employ a huge number of such workers, whether directly or indirectly. He also points out that many Americans of Mexican descent have served in the US military and that our trade relationship with Mexico is responsible for six million US jobs. "Why any modern-thinking person would ever believe that building a wall along the border of a neighboring country, which is both our ally and one of our largest trading partners, is frankly astounding and asinine," Vela writes. "I will not presume to speak on behalf of every American of Mexican descent, for every undocumented worker born in Mexico who is contributing to our country every day or, for that matter, every decent citizen in Mexico. But, I am sure that many of these individuals would agree with me when I say: 'Mr. Trump, you're a racist and you can take your border wall and shove it up your ass.'" (Even Republicans are chiding Trump.)

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