US President, Donald Trump is under fire for lamenting the immigration status of some countries in the temporary protected status and saying they are from shi*thole countries. He made this statement during immigration negotiations on Thursday with lawmakers in the Oval Office, according to The Washington Post., Fox News, CNN and a host of other media reports. Trump allegedly said:
“Why are we having all these people from s—hole countries come here?”
The president was referring to people from Haiti, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and African countries in the temporary protected status program, a source in the meeting told Fox News. Trump reportedly grew frustrated with lawmakers who floated restoring protections for immigrations from these countries and nation as part of an immigration agreement.
About a dozen people, both Republicans and Democrats, were in the room at the time he made this statement. And according to a source, a lot of them gasped at Trump’s statement. The president also suggested the United States should admit more people from countries like Norway instead of people from the sh*thole countries.
Trump had met with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and held a news conference with her Wednesday. In a statement, the White House did not deny Trump made the comments. Raj Shah, the principal deputy White House press secretary said:
“Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people”.
Democrats reacted by accusing the president of racism.
“As an American, I am ashamed of the president,” said Illinois Democratic Rep. Luis Gutiérrez. “His comments are disappointing, unbelievable, but not surprising. We always knew that president Trump doesn’t like people from certain countries or people or certain colors.”
Some Republicans also voiced their disapproval. Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinenm said:
“Language like that shouldn’t be heard in locker rooms and it shouldn’t be heard in the White House.”