Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) defended her use of the word “constituent” to describe illegal aliens during a press conference on Capitol Hill Thursday, saying she googled the word after criticism and found it to include “somebody who is part of a community.”
Ansari was asked by a reporter whether she views “those with absolutely no form of legal status at all” as her constituents.
She responded:
So I didn’t realize this was such a controversy until the right wing media started attacking me for using the word so I googled the word constituent. The definition of constituent is somebody who is part of a community. Doesn’t matter what their legal status is. If somebody is an asylum seeker, if somebody has a green card, if somebody is a U.S. citizen, if somebody lives in the community, I represent them. Constituent does not mean voter. I don’t care if none of these individuals can vote for me, I don’t give a sh*t.
She continued, “I care about making sure that the United States government, with our taxpayer dollars, is treating human beings with dignity and respect.”
The comments followed backlash Ansari faced earlier this week when she referred to illegal aliens in ICE detention as her “constituents” during a visit to a facility in Eloy, Arizona. On Saturday, she told reporters she had been contacted by detainees and characterized the conditions inside as “dehumanizing, racist, unacceptable,” adding that she met a woman with leukemia who had lost 55 pounds without access to a specialist.
“Constituents include citizens, green card holders, DACA recipients, asylum seekers, refugees — and yes, people in ICE detention in Arizona,” Ansari wrote in a follow-up post after the visit. “Members of Congress shouldn’t pick and choose who matters or who deserves help.”
The Arizona Democrat’s position on immigration has attracted attention throughout her freshman term. In April, Ansari traveled to El Salvador with Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), Robert Garcia (D-CA), and Maxine Dexter (D-OR) to press for the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national identified by the Department of Homeland Security as an alleged MS-13 gang member and accused domestic abuser. The group joined Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who had already traveled to El Salvador on a taxpayer-funded trip to advocate for Abrego Garcia.
During her visit, Ansari referred to Abrego Garcia as being “wrongfully deported” and said she wanted “proof of life confirmation” for him from Salvadoran authorities. She also advocated for Andry Hernandez Romero, whom she portrayed as a 19-year-old Venezuelan artist. The New Yorker later confirmed Hernandez Romero was in fact 31 years old and suspected of belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang.
At the time, Ansari called the detentions a “constitutional crisis” and accused President Donald Trump of orchestrating “a government-funded kidnapping program.” She also urged more lawmakers to travel to El Salvador to “keep the pressure” on the administration.
In July, Ansari took issue with ICE enforcement against Iranian nationals during an interview on CNN, questioning the agency’s focus and saying she did not “trust this administration to be going after real criminals.” ICE officials had announced the arrests of more than 130 Iranian nationals in one week, including individuals with ties to Hezbollah and a former military sniper. Ansari, who is of Iranian heritage, said she had received dozens of calls from families about detentions and argued that Republicans were pushing to funnel more money to ICE through the budget process.
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