'Your position with respect to the millions of undocumented Mexican workers who now live in this country is hateful, dehumanizing and frankly shameful,' Vela's letter states. Economy,' cited a September 2015 Kauffman Foundation report that found immigrants are nearly twice as likely to start businesses as native-born Americans. and that's why it supports a 'pathway to citizenship' for them.Ī September 2015 article in the Chamber's online publication Above the Fold, headlined 'No, Immigrants Aren't a Drain on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, despite its Republican leanings, realizes the importance of immigrant labor in the U.S. Mexico is the state's largest market, with $94.5 billion in goods flowing from Texas to Mexico in 2015, 37 percent of the state's exports, according to the International Trade Administration. The relationship is even more important for Texas. imported $296 billion in goods from Mexico while exporting $235 billion in products manufactured in this country to Mexico.' Chamber of Commerce has documented that this trade relationship is responsible for 6 million jobs in the United States. 'No doubt Mexico has its problems, but it is also our third-largest trading partner. 'While you would build more and bigger walls, I would tear the existing wall to pieces,' the letter states. Vela called Trump's anti-immigrant positions 'ignorant' and pointed out that Mexico is one of the United States' biggest trade partners in his letter. The federal courthouse in Brownsville is named after Judge Garza and Vela's father. Judge Garza's son, Ygnacio 'Nacho' Garza, was a two-term Brownsville mayor and a member of the Texas Parks Commission. Like the Velas, the Garzas are a distinguished family in Brownsville politics. Garza, was also from Brownsville, Texas, and was appointed by President John F. In fact, the first Hispanic American ever named to the federal bench in the United States, Judge Reynaldo G.

'Judge Curiel is one of 124 Americans of Hispanic descent who have served this country with honor and distinction as federal district judges. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, by calling him a 'Mexican' simply because he ruled against you in a case in which you are being accused of fraud, among other accusations,' Vela wrote. 'You have now descended to a new low in your racist attack on an American jurist, U.S. Vela wrote in his open letter that Trump's comments about Curiel were the last straw.

He has repeatedly called for Mexico to pay for a border wall and vowed to deport the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. Trump launched his presidential campaign by claiming in a speech that Mexico sends its rapists and murderers to the United States. The Times pointed out in its story that when Curiel was a federal prosecutor in California he had to live in hiding for a year, under government protection, because a Mexican drug cartel wanted to kill him. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel was born in Indiana. He should have recused himself, not only for that, for other things.' Trump told The New York Times last week: 'I have a Mexican judge. The attorney general of New York filed a similar complaint there. Two class actions in California accuse Trump of defrauding students at his so-called Trump University. Trump ignited his latest media firestorm by claiming that the federal judge overseeing a class action lawsuit against him could not rule fairly because he is Mexican. Vela's mother, Blanca Sanchez Vela, was Brownsville's first female mayor, holding office from 1999 to 2003. to the federal bench in Brownsville, where the elder Vela presided from 1980 until his death in 2004.

President Jimmy Carter nominated his father Filemon Vela Sr. HOUSTON (CN) - A two-term Texas congressman said in an open letter Monday that he's tired of Donald Trump's race-baiting and told the presidential candidate to 'take your border wall and shove it up your ass.'įilemon Bartolome Vela Jr., 53, is a Democratic congressman from Brownsville, where he grew up and practiced law for more than 20 years.

Filemon vela jr