Hispanic Caucus chair declines Trump White House invite

Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) Chair Michelle Lujan Grisham sent a letter to President Trump Thursday rejecting an invitation to a reception honoring Hispanic Heritage Month.

Lujan Grisham, who is also the Democratic nominee for governor in New Mexico, slammed some of the White House’s policies and Trump’s rhetoric. 

“During your presidential campaign and as president, you demonized and dehumanized the Hispanic community and spread fear and untruths.

Members of both parties criticized Trump on Thursday for denying on Twitter that nearly 3,000 people died after two hurricanes and saying that the number.

The president said the number was done “by Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible.”

Lujan Grisham criticized Trump’s tweets about the hurricanes and his rhetoric about immigration.

“You have ignored and recently tweeted lies about the devastation and loss of life in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria, compared immigration to an infestation, and attacked a judge because of his Hispanic heritage,” she wrote. “That rhetoric is not only unbecoming of the President of the United States; it has no place in American political discourse.”

{mosads}“We are not a nation of fear, cruelty, division, or prejudice.  We are a nation of dignity, humanity, tolerance, and hope, and those shared, essential values transcend our political differences,” she added.

Grisham also specifically attacked the administration’s undermining of the Obama-era DACA program that granted legal status to undocumented immigrants brought to America as children.

Critics have claimed that the White House focused more on hurricanes as they struck states such as Texas and Florida than it did when they struck Puerto Rico.