Republicans are criticizing out Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) for making a “crude” comment about immigrants.

Balint was speaking at a town hall meeting in Newport in late May, defending keeping the U.S. open to immigration.

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“We know that our economy is completely bound up in immigration and migrant labor,” Balint said in video shared by NBC 5. “And of course, 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.”

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Her admittedly “crude” comment came next.

“If we don’t have avenues for people to come here legally to work and 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*ses,” she said. “Because we don’t have enough people in our country now to fill the jobs that we have right now.”

Now Republicans are saying they’re offended by what she said, both by the fact that she used a bad word and also because of what Vermont GOP Chair Paul Dame called the “disturbing sentiment that the primary purpose of immigration is to perform labor that she deems beneath the dignity of others.”

“Many immigrants have come to Vermont and gone on to remarkable careers in high-tech fields, including at our microchip manufacturing facility in Essex Junction, or have become world-class physicians serving in Vermont’s hospitals,” he said, as his party works to deport more people than have been deported in history, including immigrants who have legal rights to be in the U.S.

“Immigrants are also 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*s wipers’ is embarrassing,” Dame added.

Balint responded by attacking the current president’s anti-immigration policies, saying that he has “repeatedly wrongfully detained, deported, and disappeared people – an immoral violation of fundamental human rights.”

“He has made immigrants, regardless of status, feel unsafe and targeted all around the country. As Vermonters, we’re so proud that we are seen as a safe place to land. I’m unwavering in my position that immigrants and refugees are welcome in Vermont and that every worker in every job deserves dignity and fair wages — from doctors and scientists to carpenters and farmworkers,” Balint said.

In a separate interview, though, she apologized for the remarks, calling them “sloppy and insensitive.”

“I want to apologize to anyone who was hurt by my comments, and I want Vermonters to understand that my position hasn’t changed,” she told the local news website VTDigger. “It has been and always will be about protecting immigrants and fighting for dignity and fair wages for every single person in this country.”

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