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'Cowards': Ramirez Hits Back at Republicans Who Threatened Her With Deportation
"We will continue to stand up for our rights, and we will continue to call out the terrorist organization that is ICE," the congresswoman said in a speech at Netroots Nation.
Aug 08, 2025
Facing threats from Republicans who have called for her deportation this week, U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez has refused to back down.
The progressive Guatemalan-American congresswoman from Illinois has become a punching bag in right-wing media this week after comments she made in Spanish were apparently mistranslated by The Blaze, which claimed she said: "I'm a proud Guatemalan, before I'm an American."
It was quickly revealed that the Democrat had, in fact, said she was "very proudly Guatemalan," but "First, I am American."
But this did not stop Republican officials—including Reps. Andy Ogles (Tenn.) and Byron Donalds (Fla.); Trump border czar Tom Homan; and even the official social media account for the Department of Homeland Security, from threatening to strip Ramirez—who is a U.S.-born citizen—of her citizenship and throw her out of the country.
In her first public appearance since the attacks began, at the annual progressive gathering Netroots Nation in New Orleans, Ramirez was defiant.
In an interview with Emily Topping for Current Affairs magazine, she called the three men who attacked her "cowards."
Of Ogles, who said Ramirez should be kicked off the House Homeland Security Committee, she said, "This is a man that wants to talk about 'oath of office' but violates it every single day."
"I was born in this country just like he was," she added, "and therefore calling for me to be denaturalized and deported is not constitutional, and it's illegal."
She accused Donalds—who said he "never had a chance to meet Ramirez"—of being too afraid to face her directly: "If you don't know me, why are you talking about me? Why don't you pick up the phone and ask me what I think?"
"Because I show up to Congress," she said. "I show up every single week defending Medicaid, Social Security, education, collective bargaining, and the Constitution, something that perhaps he should think about instead of attacking a colleague on Twitter."
The congresswoman said her other Republican attackers were using her as a distraction from the mounting inquiry into President Donald Trump's involvement with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
"They don't want you to think about the Epstein files and how their number one job is to protect the pedophile and not protect the American people," Ramirez said. "But I think this is the moment we are living in."
In a keynote speech at the Netroots conference Thursday evening, Ramirez addressed that moment with ferocity.
She called out Homan, who has complained that the immigrants in Ramirez's hometown of Chicago are "very difficult" for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest because they are "educated" about their rights.
"He hopes that we don't know our rights so they can violate them," Ramirez said. "We will continue to stand up for our rights, and we will continue to call out the terrorist organization that is ICE."
Video: Netroots Nation
Attacks on immigrants were just one prong of what she called "the Trump administration's heartless, inhumane, brutal campaign of control all around us."
She said Israel's war on Gaza, which she later described as a "genocide," is also part of this campaign, as are the administration's attacks on transgender people, the homeless, unionized workers, and safety net programs like Medicaid.
"Their campaigns of starvation, displacement, and death, at home and abroad, are meant to break us," she said. "They want our resources. They want our land. They want our freedoms. They want our lives so that they can advance their imperialist authoritarian agendas across the world."
In June, Ramirez led a group of 18 congresspeople who introduced the Block the Bombs Act, which would restrict the transfer of offensive weapons to Israel.
In May, she also introduced the Born in the USA Act, which asserts that the 14th Amendment unequivocally grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States, and declares any attempts to restrict birthright citizenship unconstitutional.
Though neither bill has passed out of the Republican-controlled House and restrictions on weapons sales to Israel have struggled to receive even Democratic support, Ramirez said she still feels cause for optimism—despite what she called "dark times"—by looking at the future she hopes to build.
"It is not enough to simply protect the rights and freedoms we have now," she said. "We will create a future in which working people have every single damn thing they deserve and more."
She spoke of renewing the push for Medicare and housing for all, the Green New Deal, and an increased minimum wage. She also previewed a piece of legislation she plans to introduce in September that would increase taxes on the rich.
"In a time where they attempt to silence us, where they attempt to paralyze us, may we never normalize this moment," she said. "Yes, war is destruction, but we are creation people in a creation movement, and we are building forward."
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Muslim Lawmakers Decry 'Vile' Bipartisan Islamophobic Attacks on Zohran Mamdani
The lawmakers asserted that "smears from our colleagues on both sides of the aisle" cannot be allowed to continue.
Jun 27, 2025
All four Muslim members of the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday condemned their colleagues' Islamophobic attacks on Democratic New York City mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, which have come not only from Republicans but also from at least two congressional Democrats representing the candidate's home state.
"The vile, anti-Muslim, and racist smears from our colleagues on both sides of the aisle attacking Zohran Mamdani cannot be met with silence," Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), André Carson (D-Ind.), and Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.) said in a joint statement.
"At a time of increased violence against elected officials, we cannot allow the attacks on Zohran Mamdani to continue."
Mamdani—a democratic socialist who would be the first Muslim mayor of the nation's largest city if he wins November's general election—has come under fire by Republicans including Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee, who on Thursday formally appealed to U.S. Attorney Pam Bondi to initiate proceedings to denaturalize and deport "little Muhammad."
Earlier this week, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) posted a photo of Mamdani wearing a traditional tunic with the caption, "After 9/11 we said, 'Never Forget.' I think sadly we have forgotten."
As of Friday afternoon, no Democratic member of Congress from New York had explicitly condemned their GOP colleagues' Islamophobic remarks. To the contrary, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) falsely claimed Thursday that Mamdani had made references to "global jihad" and spuriously asserted that "globalize the intifada"—a call for Palestinian liberation and battling injustice—is a call to "kill all the Jews."
Freshman Rep. Laura Gillen (D-N.Y.) also falsely accused Mamdani of "a deeply disturbing pattern of unacceptable antisemitic comments."
The four Muslim lawmakers said in their statement that "these hateful, Islamophobic, and racist tropes have become so entrenched and normalized in our politics."
"We know these attacks all too well," they added.
Omar and Tlaib have been on the receiving end of Islamophobic attacks by House colleagues and outside death threats for years, stemming in part from Omar's status as refugee and Tlaib's as the only Palestinian American in Congress.
Like Mamdani, both lawmakers have also been targeted from both sides of the aisle for their support for Palestinian liberation, as well as their opposition to Israel's invasion, occupation, colonization and apartheid in Palestine, and the assault and siege of Gaza that are the subject of an ongoing International Court of Justice genocide case.
Advocacy groups have reported a sharp increase in anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate incidents since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led assault on Israel, a climate reminiscent of the pervasive Islamophobia following the September 11, 2001 attacks. There has also been a surge in antisemitism as Israeli forces obliterate Gaza, although critics have decried the widespread conflation of opposition to Zionism with hatred of Jewish people by groups including the Anti-Defamation League.
"At a time of increased violence against elected officials, we cannot allow the attacks on Zohran Mamdani to continue," the four lawmakers stressed. "They directly contribute to the ongoing dehumanization and violence against Muslim Americans. We unequivocally reject the normalization of anti-Muslim hate and fearmongering and call on elected leaders across our country to speak out."
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) also issued a statement Friday condemning the "outpouring of disgraceful, dangerous, racist ideology from sitting members of Congress and [Trump] administration officials following Zohran Mamdani's win in the New York mayoral primary."
Jayapal continued:
The constant displays of Islamophobia are an affront to the millions of Muslim Americans and Muslims around the world. One of the most jarring called for the denaturalization and deportation of Mr. Mamdani, an American citizen who just won a massive Democratic primary with more votes than that member, Mr. Ogles, could ever hope to win. This is an insult to voters in New York City who take democracy seriously.
Denaturalization of U.S. citizens is part of the Trump playbook to attack all legal immigration. It is completely outrageous and flies in the face of the laws of this country.
"The hateful language directed at Mr. Mamdani will get someone killed, and we all should be outraged," Jayapal added. "It must end. Every person who cares about democracy, freedom of religion, and the right for all Americans to be treated equally should speak out immediately against these insane and dangerous attacks."
Correction: This article originally misidentified Rep. Gillen as "Lauren" Gillen.
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'Vicious Islamophobia': GOP Calls for Deportation of US Citizen Mamdani
Journalist Mehdi Hasan demanded "any leadership at all from the Democrats against brazen Islamophobia against their own presumptive mayoral candidate."
Jun 27, 2025
The victory of New York state lawmaker Zohran Mamdani in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary this week quickly ushered in what one progressive media outlet called "mask-off racism and fascism" from several Republicans in Congress, with U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles going as far as making an official request to the Trump administration for "denaturalization proceedings" for the U.S. citizen.
Mamdani would be the first Muslim mayor of the nation's largest city if he wins the general election in November—a fact that appears to have enraged the Tennessee Republican, who wrote to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to call for a federal investigation into rap lyrics Mamdani wrote before he became a naturalized citizen and began his political career.
Ogles pointed to the lyrics, "Free the Holy Land Five / My guys"—a reference to the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a major Muslim charity that was shut down by the George W. Bush administration and designated a terrorist group after the September 11, 2001 attacks—even though it donated money to Palestinian charities that the U.S. government also supported.
Dozens of major U.S. and international rights organizations have also called for five philanthropists who worked for the Holy Land Foundation—who were sentenced to up to 65 years in prison even though they were not accused of directly funding terrorism—to be pardoned and released, but Ogles accused Mamdani of publicly glorifying "a group convicted of financing terrorism."
Ogles also pointed to Mamdani's refusal to condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada," which includes the Arabic word for "uprising" and is associated by supporters of the Israeli government with Hamas' violent attacks on Israel—but evidently not with Palestinians' numerous peaceful acts of protest against Israel's apartheid policies.
Mamdani said in a podcast interview before the primary election this week that the word intifada means "very different things" for different people, including "a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights"—comments many New Yorkers who voted for him, including as many as 1 in 5 Jewish Democrats, according to some polls—appeared to agree with.
But Ogles claimed the remarks bolstered the case for Mamdani's denaturalization seven years after he became a U.S. citizen, and suggested without evidence that the New York state assemblymember "concealed relevant associations" when he applied for citizenship.
"Publicly praising the [Holy Land] Foundation's leadership as 'My Guys' raises serious concerns about whether Mr. Mamdani held affiliations or sympathies he failed to disclose during the naturalization process," Ogles claimed.
In a post on X announcing his request to Bondi, Ogles referred to Mamdani as "little muhammad" said, "He need to be deported."
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) posted on the social media platform X after Mamdani's victory that "we sadly have forgotten" the September 11 attacks, adding a photo of Mamdani wearing a traditional tunic with other Muslims at a gathering in New York.
She later posted a poll on her account, providing no justification or supporting evidence as she asked her more than 500,000 followers whether the Democratic mayoral candidate should be denaturalized and deported.
Journalist Mehdi Hasan of Zeteo pointed out that while both establishment Democratic and Republican lawmakers have joined the corporate media in lobbing accusations of antisemitism at progressive politicians and pro-Palestinian student protesters, they are "totally normalizing and amplifying the worst and most vicious Islamophobia."
"Will Rep. Hakeem Jeffries or Sen. Chuck Schumer be saying anything about this? Condemning it? Calling for a censure vote of Ogles? Any leadership at all from the Democrats against brazen Islamophobia against their own presumptive mayoral candidate?" asked Hasan, referring to the top Democrats in the House and Senate.
Democratic members of the House Homeland Security Committee denounced Ogles for spreading "racist drivel" and issued a reminder that Ogles "faked a $320,000 campaign loan" and "lied about being an economist," but at press time neither Schumer nor Jeffries—both New York Democrats—had publicly addressed the Republicans' attacks on the mayoral candidate and sitting lawmaker from their home state.
Another prominent Democrat in Mamdani's home state, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, appeared to align herself squarely with Republicans like Ogles—proclaiming on "The Brian Lehrer Show" that Mamdani had made references to "global jihad" and saying unequivocally that the phrase "globalize the intifada" is a call to "kill all the Jews."
Hasan was among those who said Gillibrand should "resign for falsely smearing Zohran Mamdani as a terrorist." A spokesperson for the senator later said she "misspoke" when using the phrase "global jihad"—a term Mamdani is not reported to have ever said. At press time Gillibrand herself had not publicly apologized for the remark.
In contrast to Democratic leaders' approach to Mamdani thus far, in November 2023, Palestinian-American Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) faced a censure vote that was supported by 22 House Democrats for expressing support for Palestinian rights and criticizing the Israeli government after a Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) said "egregious behavior" like that of Ogles "has gone unchecked for too long and will inevitably lead to more political violence."
"It's full-blown, dangerous Islamophobia and racism," said Ansari. "House Republican leadership must condemn it unequivocally and urgently. Enough."
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