Former GOP Congressman, Justin Amash, strikes Trump after he told congressional women to "return" to their country

Representative Justin Amash, who announced this month his decision to leave the Republican Party, and many other members of Congress have targeted Donald Trump's tweet Sunday morning suggesting that progressive women from Congress return to their country, describing the president's remarks as "racist".

"To tell these American citizens (most of whom are born here) to" come back "to" crime-infested places from where they came "is racist and disgusting," Amash wrote on Twitter, sharing the tweet. controversial Trump. Amash, whose parents immigrated to the United States, was the only GOP congressman to demand the removal of Trump before leaving the party this month, declaring himself independent.

The President wrote: "Why do not they return and help to repair the places totally devastated and infested by the crime they are from," after criticizing the "Democratic Progressive Women Democrats" for "telling the people the United States, the largest and most powerful nation in the world, how our government should be run. "He added," you can not leave fast enough. "

Although Trump did not mention specific names, his comments were viewed as a clear reference to Democratic representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. As Amash and others have pointed out, Tlaib, Ocasio-Cortez and Pressley are all born in the United States. Omar immigrated to the United States in 1992 as a refugee from war-torn Somalia and has been naturalized since 2000, almost two decades ago.

Ocasio-Cortez is a Puerto Rican ethnic group, which is not an independent country and is part of the United States. All Puerto Ricans are American citizens by birth. Pressley is a black American, born in Ohio and raised in Illinois. Tlaib's parents, like Amash's father, immigrated from the Palestinian territories to the United States, which the United States does not officially recognize as a sovereign state. She was born and raised in Michigan.

House Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi has strongly condemned Trump's "xenophobic comments" in a series of posts on Twitter.

"When @realDonaldTrump tells four US Congressional women to return to their country, he reaffirms that his plan to" Giving Glory to America "has always been to make the White America anew" she wrote. "Our diversity is our strength and our unity is our power."

Other Democratic members of Congress have also reacted to the president's tweet.

"It's incredibly racist, I think we're a nation of immigrants," said Congresswoman Nanette Barragán, who represents California, about the state of the US. CNN Union. "I am proud to be the daughter of immigrants," she added.

Representative Ben Ray Luján, a Democrat from New Mexico, told Fox News Sunday: "It's a racist tweet."

Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who is seeking to be appointed to the presidency of the Democratic Party in 2020 and who has repeatedly said that Trump is a "racist" in the past, has targeted the president again.

"When I call the racist president, that's what I'm talking about," wrote Sanders on Twitter, sharing Trump's tweet. "We must unite for justice and dignity for all."

Ocasio-Cortez also responded to Trump with a series of tweets, claiming that the president did not believe in the part of America that had elected him, Omar, Tlaib and Pressley. "Mr. President, the country where I come from and the country to which we all swear is the United States," said the congresswoman. "You are angry because you can not conceive of an America that includes us," she added in a follow-up tweet.