Trump Calls Haiti, African Nations ‘Shithole’ Countries

• January 11 2018
• Jennifer Epstein, Erik Wasson

President Donald Trump questioned senators in an Oval Office meeting Thursday on why the U.S. accepts immigrants from “shithole countries” like Haiti, El Salvador and African nations rather than places like Norway, according to three people briefed on the con…

President Donald Trump questioned senators in an Oval Office meeting Thursday on why the U.S. accepts immigrants from “shithole countries” like Haiti, El Salvador and African nations rather than places like Norway, according to three people briefed on the conversation.

The White House didn’t dispute the quotations. Asked about the account, White House spokesman Raj Shah said “certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people.”

Trump made the comments in a meeting with lawmakers who suggested restoring protections for people from those countries as part of a broader bipartisan agreement on immigration issues, the three people said. The Washington Post first reported Trump’s remarks.

Shah went on to list the White House’s demands for an agreement that would protect undocumented immigrants who were brought into the country as children and stressed that the president favors merit-based immigration.

Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who wasn’t in the meeting, in a tweet called the president’s remarks, “Breathtakingly offensive. Worse, it’s ignorant of American ideals.”

Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah said in a tweet he would like “a more detailed explanation regarding the President’s comments. Part of what makes America so special is that we welcome the best and brightest in the world, regardless of their country of origin.”

Senators Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, and Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, were among the lawmakers who met with Trump at the White House to present a deal that a small group of lawmakers had reached on immigration issues. 

About a half dozen lawmakers were in the meeting, which also included Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller, legislative director Marc Short and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, according to one person briefed on the meeting.

The lawmakers discussed restoring protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries, the Post reported, which for nearly three decades have been granted to help people who are temporarily unable to return to their countries because of armed conflict, disasters or other conditions. The administration announced this week that it would end the protection for people from El Salvador in 2019.

"Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump said, according to the Post, which quoted two people briefed on the meeting. Trump then suggested the U.S. should instead accept more people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met with Wednesday.

Trump was reported in December to have made similarly disparaging comments last year about people who had received U.S. visas in 2017. He said that people from Haiti "all have AIDS" while people from Nigeria would never "go back to their huts," the New York Times said.

Shah said in an email that Trump “is fighting for permanent solutions that make our country stronger by welcoming those who can contribute to our society, grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation. He will always reject temporary, weak and dangerous stopgap measures that threaten the lives of hardworking Americans, and undercut immigrants who seek a better life in the United States through a legal pathway.”