Long before President Donald Trump faced accusations of racism for telling Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and her “Squad” allies to “go back” to their home countries, Tlaib herself was calling for the deportation of an American citizen.
In December 2015, Tlaib called on authorities to “deport this a**hole” after Trump proposed his travel ban on Muslims entering the United States, Breitbart reports. And Tlaib’s not the only one.
Flash to the past
President Trump set off a firestorm of controversy earlier this month when he told Tlaib, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and two other Democratic lawmakers to “go back” and “fix” the countries where they came from. The feud escalated further when Trump supporters broke into chants of “send her back” at a campaign rally last week, referring to Omar, the only congresswoman of the four who was not born in the U.S., who came to America as a Somalian refugee. Trump later disavowed the chants.
It wouldn’t be possible to “send her back” anyway, since Omar is a citizen, but Democrats have said that Trump’s comments — and the chants — are proof that Trump is stoking racial animus against the “Squad.” According to the Democrats, Trump is a racist for telling American citizens to leave the country — but Breitbart reports that at least two of his targets have called to deport American citizens in the past.
In 2015, Tlaib blasted off a crass tweet directed at Trump and calling for his deportation, one of many vulgar broadsides against the president to come from the congresswoman. Conservatives mocked Tlaib’s tweet after it re-emerged, Fox News reports, with Ann Coulter joking: “Immigrants to our country are living in abject terror of Trump!”
Deport this asshole! https://t.co/pXTah0hTot
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) December 7, 2015
Tlaib’s tweet was in reference to Trump’s travel ban, which he would go on to successfully enact after the Supreme Court’s approval. Tlaib would go on to win election to the House in 2018, and along with other members of the “Squad,” consume the Democratic Party — and Washington — in controversy.
In another tweet, apparently referencing an anti-Islam protest in Arizona, Tlaib again called for the deportation of Americans, writing: “Wallah someone deport these unAmerican ISISlike armed bikers. #PHXmosque. Because #NotMyAmerica to allow them to intimidate fellow Americans [sic].”
But wait, there’s more…
And it turns out that Tlaib’s friend Omar also called for the deportation of American citizens. In a resurfaced tweet from 2012, Omar wrote: “[W]e are citizens [and] can’t be deported, why don’t we deport you to where ever you came from[?]” Omar was reportedly responding to a Twitter user in a comment thread about a Maine mayor who had told Somalian migrants to leave their culture “at the door.”
In the course of the back-and-forth, Omar said that immigrants should not be expected to assimilate. “Don’t expect us to change either. We have as much right to be here as you,” she wrote.
Unmasking the “Squad”
When Tlaib entered the halls of Congress in January, the American people were given a rude introduction. A viral video that showed the Democrat vowing to “impeach the mother*****r” set the tone for what would quickly prove a controversial first term in Congress.
Since January, Tlaib and Omar have been accused of making anti-Semitic statements, and both are among a few enthusiastic supporters in Congress of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestments, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Crass, radical, and extreme, this new generation of Democrats has pushed their party far to the left, with calls to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), end deportations, and even provide healthcare to illegal immigrants, according to The Washington Examiner.
But even before these Democrats entered Congress, there were signs that they would be more radical than their predecessors. Over the weekend, a video resurfaced of Tlaib, who was a former Michigan state legislator until 2014, being forcefully removed from a 2016 Trump speech while screaming, “You guys are crazy!” President Trump referenced the video on Tuesday in a speech at a Turning Point USA summit, calling Tlaib a “crazed lunatic,” The Hill reports.
Meanwhile, questions about Omar’s marriage continue to mount. Considerable evidence reported by right-wing journalists — and summarily ignored by mainstream media — continues to suggest that Omar may have married her brother in an immigration fraud scheme. In addition, Minnesota campaign finance officials reported in June that Omar filed taxes jointly with her first husband while still married to her second husband and alleged brother.
For his part, Trump has insisted that the four lawmakers hate the United States and that they are free to leave the country anytime they choose. The “Squad” is hitting back in kind. On Monday, Tlaib called for the president’s impeachment, for perhaps the thousandth time.
“I’m not going nowhere,” Tlaib said, “not until I impeach this president.”
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