Today, Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, invited Victorina Morales, a resident of Bound Brook, NJ, to join the Congresswoman as her guest at the President’s State of the Union Address on Tuesday, February 5. Morales, an undocumented immigrant, was fired from the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, NJ, and has since campaigned for rights and fair treatment for undocumented immigrants.

“President Trump justified shutting the government down for 5 weeks by demonizing immigrants as the scourge of the country and the root of our nation’s crime and insecurity. Meanwhile, CEO Trump led a company that has relied extensively on the hard work of undocumented immigrants like my constituent Victorina to keep his resorts clean and his putting greens trimmed. Donald Trump wants to build silly walls to stop the same immigrants that he’s made a career and a fortune from exploiting.

“Trump has threatened another shutdown if he can’t get that wall. He claims his wall is for our security. The only thing his wall has any chance of securing is Trump’s ego, and I’m hopeful that Congress steps up to lead where Trump has failed. We need to implement a true bipartisan immigration reform plan — one that both secures our border and establishes a pathway to citizenship for people like Victorina, who are positively contributing to our communities.

“Immigrants by and large are hardworking, trustworthy, and skilled people who simply want to work and build better lives here. For years these kinds of people were loyal and dedicated enough to be Trump Organization employees. I hope that in his State of the Union address, Donald Trump will finally acknowledge the real face of immigrants in this country — women and children fleeing violence, law-abiding, tax-paying people who would do almost anything to be Americans. And if he can’t, I’ve invited Victorina so that he may look her in her eyes to tell his lies to a familiar face.”