TheCable

Donald Trump, US President, is reported to have questioned why the US would want to have immigrants from “s***hole countries” such as Haiti and African nations.

The profane term means “an extremely dirty, shabby, or otherwise unpleasant place”.

According to NAN, Reuters quoted sources as saying the US president made the remarks in the White House while being briefed on a newly drafted immigration bill.

Trump was reportedly briefed by two US senators — Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham, with other government officials present during the conversation.

The lawmakers were said to be describing how certain immigration programs operate, including one to give safe haven in the US to people from countries suffering from natural disasters or civil strife.

One of the sources who was briefed on the conversation quoted Trump as saying: “Why do we want all these people from Africa here?

“They’re shithole countries… We should have more people from Norway.”

The second source familiar with the conversation said Trump, who has vowed to clamp down on illegal immigration, also questioned the need for Haitians in the US.

Many Democrats and some Republican lawmakers have slammed Trump over the reported remarks.

Mia Love, Republican US representative, a daughter of Haitian immigrants, said the comments were “unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation’s values”.

Love called on Trump to apologise to the American people and to the countries he is said to have denigrated.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, another Republican representative, who was born in Cuba and whose south Florida district includes many Haitian immigrants, said: “Language like that shouldn’t be heard in locker rooms and it shouldn’t be heard in the White House.”

But writing on his Twitter handle Thursday night in an apparent response to his critics, Trump tweeted: “The Democrats seem intent on having people and drugs pour into our country from the Southern Border, risking thousands of lives in the process.

“It is my duty to protect the lives and safety of all Americans. We must build a Great Wall, think Merit and end Lottery & Chain. USA!”

The Democrats seem intent on having people and drugs pour into our country from the Southern Border, risking thousands of lives in the process. It is my duty to protect the lives and safety of all Americans. We must build a Great Wall, think Merit and end Lottery & Chain. USA!

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— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018

The programme that was being discussed at the White House is called Temporary Protected Status.

In November, the Trump administration decided to end the status for immigrants from Haiti and Nicaragua.

It gave the approximately 59,000 Haitian immigrants who had been granted the status until July 2019 to return home or legalise their presence in the US

Nicaraguans were given until January 2019.

On Monday, Trump moved to end the status for immigrants from El Salvador, which could result in 200,000 Salvadorans legally in the United States being deported, beginning in September 2019.