Rep. Becca Balint (R-Vt.) has come under fire for suggesting President Trump’s immigration crackdown will leave Vermonters without “anyone around to wipe our a–es.”
The congresswoman made the outrageous claim — which she herself called “crude” — during a town hall in Newport, Vt., last week, in response to a question about US immigration policy.
“Our economy is completely bound up in immigration and migrant labor,” Balint told her constituents. “We have to come to a place in Congress where it is no longer a political issue, but we see it as an existential issue for the country.”
“If we don’t have avenues for people to come here legally to work or to build a home here, I’m going to be really crude right now — we’re not going to have anybody around to wipe our a–es because we don’t have enough people in our country now to fill the jobs that we have.”
“We also want to make sure that we have an adult conversation in Congress” about immigration, Vermont’s sole congressional rep continued.
Vermont Republican Party Chairman Paul Dame demanded that Balint apologize to Vermont’s immigrant community for the “disturbing sentiment” expressed in her remarks.
“Congresswoman Balint should apologize — not only for her crude choice of words, but more importantly for the disturbing sentiment that the primary purpose of immigration is to perform labor that she deems beneath the dignity of others,” Dame said in a statement.
“At the heart of these remarks is an opinion so offensive and so profoundly out of touch that it reveals a fundamental lack of respect for those who come to this country — abiding by the rules — in pursuit of freedom, opportunity, and a better life,” he added.
Dame noted that immigrants in the Green Mountain State have held “remarkable careers in high-tech fields,” served as “world-class physicians” in Vermont hospitals, and are “critical to our small business community, providing a wide array of goods and services that enrich our state.”
“The way Congresswoman Balint reduced Vermont’s hard-working legal immigrants to little more than ‘a– wipers’ is embarrassing,” the GOP chairman argued. “She owes them — and all Vermonters — an apology for such a shameful characterization.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) highlighted Balint’s comments on Wednesday, arguing that the congresswoman was promoting “open borders.”
“While complaining about President Trump deporting illegal immigrants, Vermont Democrat Becca Balint claims: ‘We’re not going to have anyone around to wipe our a–es.’ Democrats’ goal is, was and always will be open borders,” the NRCC wrote on X.
Mark Coester, the congresswoman’s 2026 GOP opponent for Vermont’s at-large congressional district, quipped that “from this day forward,” Balint “will not be remembered only for her incompetence but more for her INCONTINENCE.”
“We all have accidents in life but no Vermont residents ever required illegals to clean up a messy accident,” Coester wrote on X.
Balint’s office did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.