Expel Delia Ramirez — and enforce the oath of office

A sitting member of Congress declaring on foreign soil, in a foreign language, that she has primary allegiance to a foreign country sounds like the plot of a Russian spy thriller. Instead, Americans got a political telenovela when Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) told an audience in Mexico, in Spanish, “I’m a proud Guatemalan before I’m an American.”

The only real surprise is that Ramirez said it out loud — on camera — and without qualification. Given the decline in standards among today’s lawmakers, especially on the Democrat side of the aisle, the sentiment isn’t shocking. The candor is.

Americans deserve to see whether Congress will enforce its own standards. Every member should go on record.

Ramirez’s statement has drawn condemnation from commentators, political leaders, and media outlets. Condemnation isn’t enough. She should be expelled from the House of Representatives. The Oversight Project has even done the work for members. On Thursday, we released the draft text of an expulsion resolution.

Realistically, that won’t happen. The Constitution requires a two-thirds vote to expel a member, and Democrats will protect one of their own, even when that member flagrantly violates her oath of office.

Still, the vote should happen. Americans deserve to see whether Congress will enforce its own standards. Every member should go on record. Let the chips on “foreign interference” fall where they may.

The founders foresaw this

Congress has expelled 21 members in U.S. history — 17 for supporting the Confederacy, three for bribery or fraud, and one senator for siding with the British in West Florida. Almost no precedent exists for expelling a sitting member for declaring loyalty to a foreign country. That’s what makes Ramirez’s admission so remarkable.

The Constitution is built on the premise that lawmakers must have allegiance to the United States — exclusively. The founders addressed the danger of foreign influence in the oath of office, in treason’s definition, and in George Washington’s Farewell Address warning against “entangling alliances” and urging that the “name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity,” must take precedence over all other allegiances.

Expelling Ramirez would reaffirm that basic principle. Her district in Chicago is nearly 30% foreign-born and 42% Latino, according to recent, questionable census data. Many in her district no doubt share her divided loyalties, but that does not excuse it in an elected representative to Congress. Democracy may have put her in office, but the Constitution provides a remedy when loyalty to another nation trumps loyalty to the United States.

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Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

Our draft resolution makes the case succinctly: Ramirez violated the oath she took upon entering office — to support and defend the Constitution and bear “true faith and allegiance to the same.” On May 14, she posted: “I swore an oath to protect the Constitution.” She remembers the oath well enough when it suits her politics.

If Congress cannot enforce that oath in the face of such a blatant breach, then the oath is meaningless.

No dual allegiances

Over the past few decades, Democrats have turned constitutional principles into political bargaining chips. Quiet subversion has given way to open defiance — nowhere more evident than in the immigration debate. Increasingly, they argue not over policy details, but over whether the United States should have immigration laws at all.

Republicans, for their part, have largely failed to confront this trend. Too often they negotiate away sovereignty in exchange for hollow compromises. That must end.

The line is simple: The United States cannot have a member of Congress whose primary allegiance is to Guatemala — or any other nation. Congress should act accordingly. Ramirez should be expelled.