In a three-page letter, U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela blasted Donald Trump as a “racist” and told him “you can take your border wall and shove it up your ass,” reports Chron.
Vela, a Democrat from the border town of Brownsville, Texas, opened the letter diplomatically, admitting that he agrees with Trump that the government has failed veterans, that Mexican drug cartel violence requires a more serious response, and that felons who are undocumented ought to be deported.
“However, your ignorant anti-immigrant opinions, your border wall rhetoric, and your recent bigoted attack on an American jurist are just plain despicable,” Vela wrote. The “bigoted attack” refers to Trump’s recent comments concerning the judge presiding in a lawsuit against Trump University.
At a recent rally, Trump said the judge “happens to be, we believe, Mexican,” and in a June 2 interview, Trump doubled down.
“I’m building the wall, I’m building the wall,” he said. “I have a Mexican judge. He’s of Mexican heritage. He should have recused himself, not only for that, for other things.”
The presiding judge is Gonzalo Curiel of the U.S. District Court in San Diego, who was born in Indiana to parents who had emigrated from Mexico. This is not the first time Curiel has faced opposition, nor is it the worst. As a California prosecutor he spent a year living in hiding because of a secretly recorded prison conversation that revealed Curiel had been targeted for assassination by a Mexican drug cartel.
“Judge Curiel is one of 124 Americans of Hispanic descent who have served this country with honor and distinction as federal district judges,” Vela said in his letter to Trump. “You have now descended to a new low in your racist attack of [Curiel].”
Vela also offered Trump some historical perspective.
“Before you dismiss me as just another ‘Mexican,’ let me point out that my great-great grandfather came to this country in 1857, well before your own grandfather. His grandchildren (my grandfather and his brothers) all served our country in World War I and World War II. His great-grandson, my father, served in the U.S. Army and, coincidentally, was one of the first ‘Mexican’ federal judges ever appointed to the federal bench.”
In fact, the federal courthouse in Brownsville bears the name of Vela’s father. Its official name is the “Reynaldo G. Garza and Filemon B. Vela United States Courthouse,” a moniker approved in 2005 by President Bush.
Rep. Vela saved his most combative words to the presumptive Republican nominee for the end of the letter.
“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.'”
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