Back to the Real Salt Lake Newsfeed

Ted Lieu: I have served in the Air Force and Congress. People still tell me to ‘go back’ to China.

I served on active duty in the U.S. Air Force and currently serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. Yet I still experience people telling me to "go back" to China or North Korea or Japan. Like many immigrants, I have learned to brush off this racist insult. I never thought the president of the United States would tell members of Congress to "go back" to another country.

President Donald Trump has often crossed the line of what constitutes decent behavior. But this time feels different, because he is now attacking legal immigration and U.S. citizenship. His statements on Sunday and since then imply that immigrants are somehow less loyal to our country, less American, and that we should "go back" or "leave" if we disagree with him.