‘Squad’ member Rep. Delia Ramirez puts America second at gathering in Mexico City

Rep. Delia Ramirez took the stage at a leftist conference in Mexico City over the weekend and declared that she was more proud of her Guatemalan heritage than her American citizenship.

The Illinois Democrat, who attended the Panamerican Congress with fellow members of the House’s left-wing “Squad,” told the crowd in Spanish that she was “a proud Guatemalan before I’m an American.”

In the U.S., her remarks were met with questions about her allegiance to the voters who elected her and calls for her to be deported.

“These Democrats’ comments are despicable and underscore their commitment to putting Americans last,” White House spokesperson Liz Huston said in a statement. “In stark contrast, President Trump is working tirelessly to secure peace deals, deport illegal alien criminals and advance America’s interests at home and abroad.”

Ms. Ramirez has seldom been in the political spotlight. She has described herself as the “daughter of working-class Guatemalan immigrants.”

She also has boasted that she is the only lawmaker in Congress “in a mixed-status family.” Her husband, Boris, is a Dreamer, or someone brought to the U.S. illegally as a child.

Other House Democrats attending the Panamerican Congress, a gathering of leftist politicians from throughout the Americas, included Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania and Jesus G. Garcia of Illinois.

The Panamerican Congress concluded with pronouncements condemning the U.S. persecution of migrants and Israel’s aggression in the Gaza Strip.

Ms. Ramirez’s speech garnered the most attention in the U.S.

Rep. Andrew Ogles, Tennessee Republican, wrote in a post on X: “Denaturalize, deport, and kick her off the Homeland Committee. We know where her allegiances lie.”

Rep. Claudia Tenney, New York Republican, said it’s “embarrassing” that the Democratic Party “no longer even pretends to put America first.”

Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative Turning Point USA, said, “Any person who values any other country over America does not belong in Congress. Period.”

Ms. Ramirez doubled down on her Mexico City speech with a post Monday on social media.

“Honoring my Guatemalan ancestry only strengthens my commitment to America. That is the truth I carry with me always. And it is a truth that many Americans carry with them,” she said. “Anyone who denies our claims on this country simply because we dare to honor our diverse heritage and immigrant roots only exposes how fragile and small-minded their own idea of America really is.”

She called the attacks on her “a weak attempt to silence my dissent and invalidate my patriotic criticism of the nativist, white supremacist, authoritarians in government.”

“It is the definition of hypocrisy that members of Congress — who betray their oath each day they enable Trump — are attacking me for celebrating my Guatemalan-American roots,” Ms. Ramirez said.

The Department of Homeland Security responded to Ms. Ramirez with a quote from former President Theodore Roosevelt: “There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. … Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance.”

Other Squad members have experienced travails similar to Ms. Ramirez’s.

Ms. Omar, an immigrant from Somalia, was criticized last year after she said that, according to one translation, she was serving in Congress to “protect the interests of Somalia from inside the U.S. system.”

She later said the widely shared translation was wrong and she was actually saying she was advocating for the U.S. to take a particular position in a dispute between Somalia and Ethiopia.

Democrats are showing increasing hostility to Mr. Trump and, by extension, the government he controls, particularly concerning immigration.

In New Jersey, Rep. LaMonica McIver faces federal charges after a clash with Homeland Security Department agents at a migrant detention facility. The Democrat was captured on video throwing elbows at officers amid a scuffle over whether a local mayor should be allowed access to the detention center.

In Mexico City, Ms. Ramirez and her Democratic colleagues were attending the second annual Panamerican Congress. The event is billed as a gathering of delegates from countries “across the hemisphere with an ambitious agenda that ranges from equality to prosperity, solidarity to sovereignty.”

Event attendees criticized U.S. immigration policy under Mr. Trump. Gerardo Fernandez Norona, president of the Mexican Senate, talked about the “persecution of migrants in the United States.”

He called it “unjust, infamous and incorrect persecution where just for being a migrant, and just for your skin color or nationality, you are persecuted.”