San Antonio Express-NewsHearst Newspapers Logo

District 8 candidate called out for anti-refugee comments

By , Metro Columnist
Cynthia Brehm, City Council District 8 candidate.
Cynthia Brehm, City Council District 8 candidate.

In November 2015, Gov. Greg Abbott announced that Texas would not participate in this country’s resettlement of Syrian refugees escaping the brutal reign of Bashar al-Assad.

Three weeks later, however, the governor dropped his threat to block all Syrians from entering the state, and allowed three refugee families to arrive in Dallas and Houston.

To Cynthia Brehm, a social conservative who is currently running for the District 8 City Council seat, Abbott’s actions amounted to a betrayal.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

So Brehm took to Facebook in December 2015 and expressed her disapproval this way: “Did you see that Abbott backed off his stance to forbid the entrance of Syrian refugees? God help us, what will become of our country?”

On the same Facebook thread, Brehm wrote this about the refugees: “We don’t want them, we don’t need them, send them back!”

Brehm’s social-media broadsides came back to bite her last month, when the Muslim Children Education and Civic Center (MCECC) hosted a District 8 candidate forum for an audience of 120 people.

Near the end of the April 14 forum, a resident asked Brehm if she stood by her Facebook diatribes. The next questioner asked how San Antonio can guard against Islamophobia.

Brehm, 59, seemed uncomfortable dealing with the issue, repeatedly saying, in reference to discrimination, “It’s just there.”

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

At that point, two of her opponents, Manny Pelaez and Tony Valdivia, jumped in to call out Brehm for her Facebook posts. Brehm refused to acknowledge the words she had written.

“Someone stood up in a political room,” she said, “and made accusations, saying I said something. Really? I haven’t seen it. I want to see it.”

The next day, Pelaez complied with Brehm’s request. He posted her 2015 comments on his own Facebook page.

Sakib Shaikh, the forum moderator and a spokesman for MCECC, said he talked to Brehm immediately after the event. Shaikh said Brehm insisted that the constituent who asked about her Facebook posts “was planted by Manny Pelaez.” Shaikh asked how she knew, and Brehm replied, “Because he (Pelaez) is a lawyer; he would do something like that.”

Pelaez dismissed Brehm’s allegation Tuesday, saying, “No, it’s kind of hard for me to imagine how I would orchestrate that.”

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Brehm did not respond to an interview request for this column.

Shaikh said that five days after the forum, Brehm called him to say that her 2015 Facebook comments were taken out of context. He said Brehm told him that she loved Muslims and that her Facebook posts were specifically referring to terrorists going into Europe from Syria.

“I guess she was trying to win points with me,” Shaikh said. “So she said, ‘You know how in Saudi Arabia, if you steal, they cut off your hand? I wish they would cut people’s hands off here if they steal.’”

It’s impossible to read Brehm’s Facebook posts and mistake the context. In reference to Syrian refugees, she wrote, “What concerns me is how long will our tax dollars be used to pay for their well-being? They can’t speak the language, they can’t assimilate because they are foreigners.”

If Brehm was expressing fear about terrorists committing acts of violence, it was odd for her to frame the issue by complaining about their ability to assimilate and learn the English language. Those factors wouldn’t seem to be at the top of your list of concerns about terrorists.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Brehm’s campaign took another strange turn last Saturday.

Pelaez’s brother and parents were in the parking lot of the Cody Library polling site when Brehm approached Pelaez’s 76-year-old father, who broke his hip last year and was sitting in a lawn chair.

Brehm told Pelaez’s father to move his chair, according to Pelaez. When he balked, Brehm allegedly challenged the elder Pelaez to a fistfight.

Francisco Benavides, a volunteer for District 9 council candidate John Courage, witnessed the exchange and said Brehm “was speaking to them (Pelaez’s family) in a somewhat serious and aggressive manner.”

Benavides said Brehm eventually told Pelaez’s father to stop talking, and turned away from him.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

“Then, in what seemed like a real mocking and very vulgar gesture, she started slapping her behind at him,” Benavides said. “It was a real Jerry Springer type of insult.”

Then again, Brehm seems to be running a real Jerry Springer type of campaign.

ggarcia@express-news.net

Twitter: @gilgamesh470

Gilbert Garcia is a native of Brownsville, Texas, with more than 20 years experience writing for weekly and daily newspapers. A graduate of Harvard University, he has won awards for his reporting on music, sports, religion, and politics. He is the author of the 2012 book, "Reagan's Comeback: Four Weeks in Texas That Changed American Politics Forever," published by Trinity University Press. One of his feature stories also appeared in the national anthology, "Da Capo Best Music Writing 2001." Email Gilbert at GGarcia@express-news.net.