Washington – President Donald Trump reportedly lashed out in a Thursdaymeeting with lawmakers about immigration reform, demanding to know why theUS should accept citizens from what he called “shithole” countries.
Trump sat down with senators and congressmen at the White House to discussa proposed bipartisan deal that would limit immigrants from bringing familymembers into the country and restrict the green card visa lottery inexchange for shielding hundreds of thousands of young immigrants fromdeportation.
“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?”Trump said, according to people briefed on the meeting who spoke with TheWashington Post.
The New York Times later reported the same comment, citing unnamed peoplewith direct knowledge of the meeting.
The president was referring to African countries and Haiti, and thensuggested the United States should welcome immigrants from places likeNorway, whose prime minister met with Trump on Wednesday.
The comments alarmed and mystified the people attending the meeting.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senator Dick Durbin cameto the White House to outline their bipartisan compromise, but foundthemselves in the room with several Republican immigration hardliners.
Graham and Durbin are leading efforts to codify protections for so-called”dreamers,” immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children.
In exchange, the deal would end extended family chain migration.
It also reportedly would cut the visa lottery program by half andprioritize certain countries in the system, instead of scrapping italtogether as several Republicans have suggested as part of an agreement.
The president and lawmakers are in the midst of intense negotiations abouthow to shield nearly 800,000 “dreamers” from deportation.
Last year, Trump scrapped the Obama-era Deferred Action for ChildhoodArrivals (DACA) program that protected the immigrants, and set a deadlineof March 5 for Congress to legislate a fix.
The White House did not deny the account of Trump’s use of language, butinstead suggested the president was “fighting for permanent solutions” thatstrengthen the nation, in part through the use of a merit-based immigrationsystem.
“Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, butPresident Trump will always fight for the American people,” White Housespokesman Raj Shah said in a statement.
“He will always reject temporary, weak and dangerous stopgap measures thatthreaten the lives of hardworking Americans, and undercut immigrants whoseek a better life in the United States through a legal pathway.”
Some Democrats seized on Trump’s slur to suggest he is anti-immigrant.
“We always knew that President Trump doesn’t like people from certaincountries or people or certain colors,” congressman Luis Gutierrez said.
“We can now we say with 100% confidence that the president is a racist whodoes not share the values enshrined in our Constitution.” – Agencies