Congressman tells Donald Trump to 'take your border wall and shove it up your a**'

Filemon Vela wrote an angry open letter after seeing Mr Trump tweet about his 'love' for Hispanics

Filemon Vela accused Mr Trump of being a 'racist' after his rhetoric about Hispanics (Reuters)

When Donald Trump tweeted a picture of him eating a taco bowl with the caption: “I love Hispanics”, it sent one politician over the edge.

In an open letter which has become legendary in Capitol Hill, a Democratic congressman called Filemon Vela from Brownsville wrote an open letter to the Republican nominee.

“Mr. Trump, you're a racist and you can take your border wall and shove it up your a**.”

Mr Vela, a lawyer who was elected to congess in 2013, has reportedly earned a reputation as a “quiet workhorse” in the southern Texas district and favours “working in the shadows“, as reported by Valley Central.

But his letter meant the congressman exploded into the limelight and he was suddenly juggling multiple interview requests.

Referring to Mr Trump’s tweet, Mr Vela said: "There is no connection between him and people of Hispanic origin, and then these comments about the judge as the icing on the cake. I mean, who would ever say that?”

Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is ruling over the scandal of the now defunct Trump University, has been accused by the Republican of being “biased” and “unfair” against him as he is a “Mexican”, although he was born in Indiana.

Mr Vela wrote the open letter over several days as he was driving from Texas to Washington, during which he stopped off at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, the site of Dr Martin Luther King’s assassination.

In Mr Trump's first recorded address for a conference of Christian Hispanics last month, the presidential candidate filmed the two-minute video against loud background noise on his private plane.

At one point, Mr Trump almost dropped the piece of paper he was reading from.

"You're going to be very happy with president Trump," he said.

Mr Vela said to MSNBC that he agreed with Mr Trump on several policies like improving care for veterans, and dealing with Mexican drug cartels and deporting criminals who entered the US illegally.

But he wanted to take the real estate mogul to task for his rhetoric about those of Mexican descent and his plan to build a wall along the US-Mexican border.

“Before you dismiss me as just another 'Mexican,' let me point out that my great-great grandfather came to this country in 1857, well before your own grandfather,” he wrote in the letter. “His grandchildren (my grandfather and his brothers) all served our country in World War I and World War II. His great-grandson, my father, served in the U.S. Army and, coincidentally, was one of the first 'Mexican' federal judges ever appointed to the federal bench.”

“I will not presume to speak on behalf of every American of Mexican descent, for every undocumented worker born in Mexico who is contributing to our country every day or, for that matter, every decent citizen in Mexico,” he added.