U.N Condemns Donald Trumps “Shithole Countries” Remark

The United Nations (U.N) human rights office has condemned United States President Donald Trump‘s remarks about immigrants from Africa and Haiti as coming from “shithole countries,” a comment he reportedly made late this week. The quote comes courtesy of a number of sources in the White House who are said to be familiar with the matter.

According to a number of reports, after being presented with a proposal to restore several protections for immigrants from both Africa and Haiti, Mr. Trump responded by saying:

“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?”

Mr. Trump also reportedly asked why the United States wasn’t accepting immigrants for countries such as Norway, the Prime Minister of which he had met on Wednesday. U.N human rights spokesman Rupert Colville reacted to the comments on Friday at a Geneva press conference, saying:

“These are shocking and shameful comments from the President of the United States. There is no other word one can use but ‘racist.’ You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as ‘shitholes’, whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome.“

Raj Shah, a White House spokesman, didn’t confirm or deny Mr. Trump’s comments; however, he deferred to Mr. Trump’s nationalistic view of immigration, saying that:

“Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but president Trump will always fight for the American people…[President Trump 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.“

Mr. Trump‘s comments came in preparation for a meeting to discuss the so-called Dreamers Act, which controls the fate of hundreds of thousands of young, undocumented United States immigrants. According to reports, Mr. Trump made the comments in front of several leading politicians, including senators Lindsey Graham, David Perdue and Dick Durbin, who was the only Democrat invited, as well as congressman Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader.

Update: Donald Trump Responds To “Shithole Countries” Reports

U.S President Donald Trump has responded to a number of reports saying that he had referred to Africa and Haiti as “shithole countries.” In a statement released on Twitter, Mr. Trump said that, while his comments on the immigration bill were tough, they weren’t what has been initially reported.

In his statement, he said:

“The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made – a big setback for DACA!“

Mr. Trump also further elaborated on the DACA meeting, saying that it was a “step back” for the bill, saying:

“The so-called bipartisan DACA deal presented yesterday to myself and a group of Republican Senators and Congressmen was a big step backwards. Wall was not properly funded, Chain & Lottery were made worse and USA would be forced to take large numbers of people from high crime…countries which are doing badly. I want a merit based system of immigration and people who will help take our country to the next level. I want safety and security for our people. I want to stop the massive inflow of drugs.“