Who is Pramila Jayapal? Chennai-born US lawmaker gets death threats, told ‘go back to where you came from’

At one point during the third voicemail, a man also calls her the “ugliest mother***** in the world”, in what is a common refrain among racist right-wing Americans and white nationalists that people of colour are not pretty or look like apes.

This was demonstrated amply when the director of a non-profit organisation in West Virginia was suspended from her job in December 2016 for calling the then US First Lady Michelle Obama an “ape on heels”.

She was back at her job soon at a time when Donald Trump had already been elected President — an event that researchers said gave rise to more racist behaviour in the country — and was waiting to be sworn in. She was fired a few days later only after further criticism.

‘Go back to where you came from’

That wave of racism has only swelled, with hate crimes targeting minorities increasing in the US under Trump.

The twice-impeached one-term President — the first is a record in US history, while the second makes him a successor to George HW Bush, who demitted office in 1992 — was infamous for telling non-white non-Christian people, including lawmakers, to “go back” where they apparently came from, even if they were born in the US.

The Republican President infamously aimed this jibe at the likes of Democrat lawmakers such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib — without identifying them by name — in July 2019.

While that drew criticism from some quarters, it clearly emboldened his followers.

Therefore, it didn’t come as a surprise when, in the fourth voicemail Jayapal posted, a man is heard asking: “Hey, why don’t you ******* go back to where you came from?”

Typically, political figures don't show their vulnerability. I chose to do so here because we cannot accept violence as our new norm.

We also cannot accept the racism and sexism that underlies and propels so much of this violence. pic.twitter.com/DAuwwtWt7B

— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) September 8, 2022

Who is Pramila Jayapal?

Born to Malayali parents in Chennai, Pramila Jayapal grew up in Singapore and Indonesia, before her parents took her to the US.

As a third-term member of the US House of Representatives, the lower House of the US Parliament known as the Congress, Jayapal has — since she was elected to the post in 2016 — made a name for herself because of her no-nonsense approach to usual Washington obfuscation on hot-button issues.

According to her official profile, Jayapal is a member of the House Judiciary Committee, where she serves as vice-chair of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law.

She also serves on the House Education & Labor and Budget Committees.

She is also the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which represents approximately 40 percent of the entire Democratic caucus.

Wearing all these hats, she has been known to make government officials sweat when she confronts them during House hearings.

For example, here she is questioning then-Attorney General Bill Barr — a Trump appointee — about the double standards in the US response to Black Lives Matters protesters versus those who threatened a state’s lawmakers and its governor with violence: