Gallego to GOP leaders: 'I hope you are proud of yourselves' on refugee ban

U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego slammed President Donald Trump’s executive order temporarily banning immigration from some Muslim-majority countries, saying in a statement Saturday the president is demonizing people based on their religious views.

Gallego laid blame for Trump’s actions at the feet of House Speaker Paul Ryan and his Republican colleagues, writing in the statement that they are “responsible for what Trump is doing to our country. I hope you are proud of yourselves.”

Gallego wrote that Trump campaigned on the promise of banning Muslims “as part of the most bigoted, racist, and divisive presidential campaign in modern history.”

Gallego, who served in Iraq and now represents Arizona's 7th Congressional District, said Trump is turning his back to families “feeling the devastation of war, children who are today’s Anne Frank,” the Jewish girl who became a well-known victim of the Holocaust. The congressman wrote that Trump has turned away Iraqi interpreters who help U.S. soldiers and had been allowed to enter the U.S.

Gallego addressed hundreds of Arizona Democrats gathered Saturday at Camelback High School for the state party's annual meeting, where he focused his remarks on Trump.

While Trump may have the title of president, Gallego said, he doesn’t not have the right to say his views are reflective of American values. The congressman urged Democrats to resist Trump’s policy stances during their everyday conversations with friends and families, on social media, over coffee, in the workplace and elsewhere.

“He does not have a mandate. He does not represent the values of America,” Gallego said. In resisting Trump's policies, the congressman said, they will “drive him nuts.”

The crowd laughed and cheered.