Trump asks why US would admit more people from ‘s***hole countries’
Jan 11, 2018, 4:00 PM | Updated: 8:05 pm
President Donald Trump speaks during a prison reform roundtable in the Roosevelt Room of the Washington, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
President Donald Trump used profane language Thursday when asking why the United States would want more people to immigrate from “s***hole countries.”
That’s according to two people briefed on an Oval Office meeting held Thursday.
Trump made the remark after Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin told Trump that under a proposed immigration bill, a lottery for visas would be ended. Durbin said that in exchange, people from African countries that have benefited from that lottery would be given other access to visas.
The people said Trump questioned why the U.S. would want to admit more people from “s***hole countries.” They said Trump said the U.S. should allow more immigrants from places like Norway, whose prime minster he met with on Wednesday.
The two people spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss the Oval Office meeting.
The meeting was about a bipartisan immigration deal that also included protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) was part of a small group that helped write the bill.
However, CNN reported that Trump rejected the bill and told the senators to keep working.
The president ended the DACA program, which protected thousands of immigrants brought to the United States illegally when they were children, in September.
When he announced the end of the program, he told Congress it had six months to come up with a solution to the problem. That deadline is in March.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
