Rep. Pramila Jayapal told MS NOW she is not letting President Donald Trump put a damper on her celebration of America’s 250th birthday. The Washington Democrat, who is one of only 19 naturalized citizens serving in Congress, joined “The Weeknight” to reflect on her citizenship journey and share how she plans to mark the country’s milestone anniversary. 

“It took me 17 years to become a U.S. citizen, and I get emotional when I think about it every day,” said Jayapal, who was born in India and came to America as a teenager in 1982 to attend college. 

“My parents sent me here at 16 years old, by myself, because they believed that America was the best country in the world,” she shared Wednesday, adding that the U.S. was the place they thought she was “going to have the most opportunity.”

After almost two decades, Jayapal officially became a citizen in 2000. “When I took that oath, I remember holding my hand up, and I was in this sea of people who had come from all over the world, many who had had much more difficult journeys than mine,” she said. “And we all stood there — and I’m getting chills and I’m going to get emotional talking about it — we all stood there because we felt so proud.”

“We felt so proud that we had made it here,” she continued. “We felt so proud of the promise that is America.”

That pride, Jayapal said, is why, even though she disagrees “with everything that this administration is about,” she is celebrating this July 4th. “That promise that I held my hand up to is still just as real today despite Donald Trump. Maybe, in fact, because of Donald Trump, it is more important that we fight for that,” she told MS NOW.

The Democrat said it was “heartbreaking” to see the president’s Freedom 250 group effectively hijack the country’s birthday. “It’s really heartbreaking for me to see what this Trump celebration has turned into,” she said. “It’s not a celebration of America. … It is very much about him. It is not about the country that we have built and that we are building, and that was the promise that we’re working towards.”

Jayapal said she will mark this year’s anniversary by speaking at a naturalization ceremony, where she says she intends to tell those in the crowd that it is not their “duty” to “come into a perfect country.” Instead, “every single one of us” must play a part in upholding the “ideals and values” this country represents.

“I’m proud to be an American, very proud and very lucky,” she told MS NOW. “And I feel a huge responsibility to pay it forward and to make sure that other people have opportunity, not just those who are coming here, but those who are here who also have been working for that more perfect union.”

You can watch Jayapal’s full interview in the clip at the top of the page.

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