WASHINGTON — The National Republican Congressional Committee is facing backlash after falsely referring to Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., as an "illegal immigrant."
Espaillat, a Dominican American, has been open about his family having overstayed their visas in the U.S. when he was a child, before they obtained green cards and he later became a citizen.
The New York lawmaker delivered Democrats' Spanish-language response to President Donald Trump's joint address on Tuesday night.
"Democrats literally chose an illegal immigrant to give their response to President Trump’s address," the NRCC wrote in a post to X on Wednesday with a clip of Espaillat's remarks. "Predictably, this radical called Trump’s presidency a 'reign of terror.' Democrats couldn’t be more disconnected from the American people."
Espaillat responded to the NRCC's post, telling reporters on Thursday that the Republican Party was “invaded by xenophobes that think that anybody that doesn’t look like them is an illegal.”
"This is tragic and unfortunate, and because of that, I think I got a lot of support from all over the country calling them out for being a bunch of xenophobes,” he added later.
Espaillat said he had not heard from the NRCC or Republican lawmakers after the post to X.
He recounted to reporters how he arrived in the U.S. as a child with his parents on a visitor's visa.
"We overstayed our visa. We then adhered to the path that the law provided us, which was to go back to the Dominican Republic, get our green card, came back as a green card holder, became a U.S. citizen," he said. "And now, I’m a member of Congress. What a great American story."
A spokesman for the NRCC defended its post, saying, “Democrats caring more about policing words and fighting facts instead of policing our border and fighting crime shows just how out of touch they are.”
Democrats criticized the NRCC's post, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, of New York, saying in a post to X that "these people are disgusting."
House Homeland Security Committee Democrats on X called the post "vile & disgusting," and Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin said in a post to X that "the House GOP isn’t even trying to hide its racism anymore."
The X account for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee responded to the NRCC, slamming the post.
"This is xenophobic, untrue, and denigrates every immigrant who came here lawfully to pursue the American dream," the post said. "Pretty disgusting stuff from the NRCC."
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., also weighed in on X, calling the NRCC's post "inappropriate."
"He’s been a good friend and a colleague — and more importantly a strong voice for his community and the Latino community, especially his beloved Dominican-American community," Lawler said of Espaillat. "This tweet is inappropriate."
