148 African-American former Obama White House staffers have co-signed an op-ed in the Washington Post published tonight denouncing President Donald Trump‘s “go back where you came from” rhetoric and defending the four congresswomen he has been publicly trashing.

Trump was roundly denounced for his tweets and public statements regarding Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley, as well as the “send her back” chants at his recent rally. Republican reactions on those initial tweets ranged from some strong defenses of the president to two GOP congressmen agreeing the tweets were racist.

The op-ed tonight from the Obama White House staffers recalls the “relentless attacks on the legitimacy of President Barack Obama and his family from our front-row seats to America’s first black presidency” and expresses alarm about “witnessing racism surge” in the past few years:

We stand with congresswomen Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, as well as all those currently under attack by President Trump, along with his supporters and his enablers, who feel deputized to decide who belongs here — and who does not. There is truly nothing more un-American than calling on fellow citizens to leave our country — by citing their immigrant roots, or ancestry, or their unwillingness to sit in quiet obedience while democracy is being undermined.

“We refuse to sit idly by as racism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia are wielded by the president and any elected official complicit in the poisoning of our democracy,” the op-ed continues. “We call on local, state and congressional officials, as well as presidential candidates to articulate their policies and strategies for moving us forward as a strong democracy, through a racial-equity lens that prioritizes people over profit.”

You can read the full piece here. CNN’s Laura Coates discussed the op-ed with her panel tonight, and you can watch that video above.