WASHINGTON, July 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday ignited a Twitter war with several minority Democratic lawmakers, telling them to "go back" to the "places from which they came."
"Why don't they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came," Trump said in a series of tweets targeting at four Democratic lawmakers who were ethnic minorities.
The members of the House of Representatives were Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley.
Omar was born in Somalia and later moved to Minnesota, the other three were born in the United States, with Ocasio-Cortez of Puerto Rican descent, Tlaib born to Palestinian parents, and Pressley being an African American.
Trump's tweets were immediately slammed as racism from the Democrats.
"This is what racism looks like. We are what democracy looks like," said Pressley. "And we're not going anywhere."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is often at odds with the attacked congresswomen, defended her colleagues.
"When @realDonaldTrump tells four American Congresswomen to go back to their countries, he reaffirms his plan to 'Make America Great Again' has always been about making America white again," Pelosi said.
The group of four lawmakers, sometimes known as "the squad" among peers, were often attacked by Trump for their progressive positions.
According to the Pew Research Center, there are currently 52 voting members in the House and 16 members in the Senate who are immigrants or children of immigrants, and most of them are Democrats.
