Subject: Concerns Regarding the Recent Hiring of Your Director of Communications

Dear Congresswoman Maxine Waters,

We, the undersigned, are writing to express our deep concern about your recent hiring decision for the role of Director of Communications. The individual in question, Hermela Aregawi, is infamous among our communities as having served as a tireless media advocate for the dictator Abiy Ahmed, whose regime was recently placed under U.S. sanctions for massive human rights abuses connected with the horrific civil war in Tigray, Ethiopia. She also has been a harsh critic of the Biden administration and has attacked your Democratic colleague Congressman Brad Sherman, actively protesting against him and campaigning against him in the last election. 

We feel that this is not in alignment with the principles and values that you, as an American elected official and member of the Democratic Party, stand for.

Additionally, this individual is known to have associations with supporters of the totalitarian regime of Eritrea, which has its own well-documented history of appalling human rights abuses and is also under sanctions by the U.S. and international community. 

Having such a person in a position of power and influence within your team risks compromising the integrity and reputation of your office. We urge you to review the decision to hire her and consider the implications that retaining this individual may have on your public commitment to democracy, human rights, and the law.

We believe that the ethical and prudent thing to do is to reconsider this hiring decision and to seek a director of communications whose record is unblemished by association with regimes that violate human rights.

Sincerely,

The Concerned Communities of Tigrayans & Eritreans of America