Politico
By Eward Isaac-Dovere
May 22, 2018
Nina Turner is keeping her personal consultant on the Our Revolution payroll despite complaints from current and former board members and staff that the woman has made anti-immigrant comments that compromise the Bernie Sanders-inspired political group’s values.
In a statement out Tuesday, Turner, the group’s president, noted that the comments by Tezlyn Figaro are not held by Turner, or by Our Revolution. On Fox News last year, Figaro cited President Donald Trump‘s “leadership” on the travel ban and said, “We are sick and tired of immigrants coming into the country and getting benefits that Americans do not get … what I’m seeing is not paying taxes, what I’m seeing is getting a lot of freebies that Americans do not get.”
Those comments and others — a month after Trump’s election in 2016 she tweeted “Please! #buildthewall” —have upset many in the organization. The Our Revolution board stopped Turner from installing Figora as the group’s chief of staff earlier this month, in a dispute that came to light as part of a POLITICO story published Monday.
Turner’s statement went on to cite Figaro’s tweets Monday afternoon apologizing for the comments. Turner stated that Figaro “is still part of our staff,” though the matter is “under advisement by myself and the Our Revolution board of directors.”
Figaro wrote a seven-part tweet statement on Monday after the POLITICO story was published. She apologized, writing that “I offer no excuse,” but called into question the “motivation” of the people who spoke out about her association with Our Revolution.
Her initial response Monday morning was to claim that the people who complained about her hiring were “seeking 2 hurt me,” and ended the tweet by writing, “BTW IM SPANISH.”
Lucy Flores, a former Nevada assemblywoman and founding board member who resigned a few weeks before Figaro’s promotion was nixed, called the decision to keep Figaro on “incredibly disappointing.” Flores left the group out of concerns that Our Revolution wasn’t paying enough attention to Latino issues.
“If someone has anti-Semitic, anti-gay, anti-black, anti-refugee, anti-anything, we would disavow them immediately,” Flores wrote on Twitter. “But somehow anti-immigrant gets a pass? We have to do better @OurRevolution.”
“Sorry, @OurRevolution but you can’t “move the progressive revolution forward” and continue to employ Tezlyn Figaro. Her positions are antithetical to the values you claim to represent,” tweeted Jose Martinez Diaz, a former Sanders digital adviser.
Catalina Velasquez, an undocumented immigrant who remains on the board, said Sunday that if Figaro stayed on and other changes were not made, she would consider resigning.
“If I don’t see real commitment to people I’m in the space for, then absolutely,” she said.
Velasquez did not respond to a request Tuesday evening for reaction to Turner’s statement about keeping Figaro.
Complaints were also raised by Erika Andiola, also an undocumented immigrant and the group’s former political director, who claimed in a lengthy Facebook post Monday evening that Turner had fired her for working in favor of the Dream Act.
“Figaro needs to be fired immediately and Senator Turner needs to address the very serious, legitimate concerns that her decisions have raised,” she wrote. “If Our Revolution and the broader political revolution are going to succeed, we need to do better than this.”
Turner also addressed Andiola’s post in her statement, writing, “I have the utmost respect for her commitment to immigrant justice, and wish her the absolute best. Given the sensitivity of personnel matters, I am unable to comment further.”
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