U.S. Magistrate Judge John Primomo of San Antonio, Texas told is being penalized for telling newly sworn-in American citizens to leave the country if they don’t like the idea of a Donald Trump presidency.
The comments were made last week during a citizenship ceremony Judge Primomo was overseeing. KENS-TV reports that, after he’d sworn in the new citizens, he told them, “[Trump] will be your president, and if you do not like that, you need to go to another country.” Judge Primomo has since been permanently sanctioned from overseeing any future citizenship ceremonies, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Judge Primomo has been overseeing citizenship ceremonies for nearly three decades, and he has sworn in upwards of 100,000 new citizens. He claims that the comments he made weren’t meant to be political. “I wasn’t trying to say anything for or against Donald Trump,” he told the San Antonio Express-News. “I was just trying to say something hopeful and unifying and unfortunately it was taken out of context.”
His remarks have been noted by Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The Latino legal advocacy group has issued a formal complaint against Judge Primomo, saying that his words have “particularly harmful undertones in the Latino community.”