House Democrat Snaps Back at Critics of Her Calling Illegal Immigrants Her ‘Constituents’: ‘I Don’t Give a Sh*t’

(AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) informed the “right-wing media” that she Googled “constituent” after she was surprised to see pushback to her referring to illegal immigrants as her constituents.

At a Thursday press conference, Ansari snapped back after she was asked by The Daily Caller News Foundation about referring to illegal immigrants as constituents.

“I didn’t realize this was such a controversy until the right-wing media started attacking me for using the word,” Ansari said.

The congresswoman told reporters that after seeing pushback to what she said, she Googled the word “constituent.”

“The definition of constituent is somebody who is part of a community. It doesn’t matter what their legal status is — if somebody is an asylum seeker, if somebody has a heart, if somebody is a U.S. citizen, if somebody lives in the community, I represent them,” she said.

According to Ansari, “constituent” does not refer to a voter.

“I don’t care if these, if none of these individuals can vote for me. I don’t give a s**t,” she said.

According to Oxford Languages and Google, the definition of “constituent” can be “part of a whole” or a “component” of something, but it also means “being a voting member of a community or organization and having the power to appoint or elect” or “a member of a constituency.” A constituency is defined as “a body of voters in a specified area who elect a representative to a legislative body.”

Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-NC) was among Ansari’s latest critics who reacted to the video of her explanation. The Republican congressman said his colleague had no business writing laws.

“When you say ‘I don’t care if they can’t vote for me,’ you admit it,” he wrote. “You don’t represent Americans, you represent everyone but them.”

Ansari has raised alarm about the conditions at ICE facilities in recent weeks. She visited a detention center in Eloy, Arizona, over the weekend, where she claimed detained migrants were not receiving proper medical attention and were living in poor conditions.

“I spoke with more than two dozen women, one woman in particular, she has leukemia, she has been there for five months,” she said, according to Arizona’s KJZZ. “She has lost 55 pounds, and she has still not been able to see a specialist.”