*A top civil rights leader in Illinois is facing calls to resign after making disparaging comments about migrants.
In an October Zoom call with NAACP leaders in the state, Teresa Haley of the Springfield branch called the migrants savages. Now she’s facing backlash from colleagues who want her to resign, ABC 7 reports.
“But, these immigrants have come over here, they’ve been raping people, they’ve been breaking into homes. They’re like savages as well. They don’t speak the language, and they look at us like we were crazy,” Haley allegedly said.
Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker denounced her “Reprehensible remarks.”
A recording of an October video call between NAACP county presidents shows Illinois NAACP President Teresa Haley calling migrants being bused into Chicago rapists and savages.https://t.co/Qj8EaTlIrP
— WCIA (@WCIA3) December 13, 2023
“I would hope that she would apologize for the remarks. I also think that people should recognize that immigrants to this country are all around us,” Pritzker said.
“Thinking of the rich history of the NAACP as an organization – it’s the oldest civil rights organization in the country and to have an Illinois state president engage in that type of rhetoric and that type of speech, I can’t imagine — I could have never imagined I would have heard that from a civil rights leader,” said former NCAAP president Patrick Watson of DuPage County.
Watson wants Haley to step down for taking an anti-migrant stance.
“I think she should absolutely resign. I think she’s unfit to be the president, the state president of the NAACP, someone that has that kind of sentiment and that kind of thought against migrant communities,” Watson said, ABC 7 reports.
“These comments are not indicative of what the NAACP stands for. But again, I’m not going to speak on behalf of Teresa Haley and say she should or shouldn’t resign or things like that,” said Michael Childress, the new president of the DuPage County branch.
Watson has not yet responded to the furor over her remarks.
READ MORE: Chicago Officials Squash Plans to House Migrants at Youth Football Facility
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