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Senators Contradict Trump Denial of Using Crude Remark in Immigration Meeting

President’s tweet was immediately contradicted by Sen. Dick Durbin and later by Sen. Lindsey Graham, who were both in the meeting

By Laura Meckler and Rebecca Ballhaus Updated Jan. 12, 2018 3:22 p.m. ET 3050 COMMENTS
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-denies-questioning-migration-from-shithole-countries-1515766158

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump on Friday disputed reports that he had questioned why the U.S. would admit immigrants from “shithole countries” in Africa, as leaders from the U.S. and abroad condemned his reported comments.

“The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used,” the president wrote on Twitter. He was referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that protects young undocumented immigrants from deportation, the subject of Thursday’s meeting where he was said to make those remarks.

His tweet was immediately contradicted by Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.), and later by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), who were both in the meeting. Speaking to reporters in Chicago, Mr. Durbin confirmed that Mr. Trump said all of the comments attributed to him.

“In the course of his comments [Mr. Trump] said things that were hate-filled, vile and racist. I use those words advisedly,” he said. “I cannot believe in the history of the White House, in that Oval Office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday.”

Mr. Graham, who helped craft a bipartisan DACA agreement with Mr. Durbin, said Friday that, in the meeting, he responded to Mr. Trump’s comments by describing his own vision of America. “It was best said a long time ago, E Pluribus Unum—Out of Many, One. Diversity has always been our strength, not our weakness.”

Two other Republican senators in the room, Sens. David Perdue of Georgia and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, said in a statement that they “do not recall the president saying these comments specifically.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) said in an interview in Wisconsin that he had read about the remarks. “The first thing that came to my mind was very unfortunate, unhelpful,” he said.

The meeting was convened to discuss a bipartisan agreement devised by a group of senators to give a path to citizenship for so-called “Dreamers,” provide funding for Mr. Trump’s promised wall, or fence, along the southern border, make changes to the diversity visa lottery program which admits immigrants from underrepresented countries, and other changes. The senators presented their plan at the White House, where it was met with opposition from conservative lawmakers also in attendance.

The back-and-forth left unclear the fate of Dreamers, who will begin losing protections from DACA in large numbers on March 5. Mr. Trump ended the Obama-era program in September.

It also raised the chances of a partial government shutdown. Congress must pass a new funding measure by Friday, Jan. 19, to keep the government running. Such a measure will require Democratic support, and many Democrats want to use their leverage to demand action for the Dreamers.

At Thursday’s meeting, Mr. Trump questioned why the U.S. would want to admit people from Africa, the source of many diversity lottery applicants. He said: “Why do we want all these people from these shithole countries here? We should have people from places like Norway,” The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Mr. Trump also said he opposed granting a legal status, in particular, to immigrants from Haiti. The White House didn’t deny the president’s comments at the time.

Mr. Durbin said Friday that the president referred to African nations as “shithole countries” repeatedly and that when the issue of protections for Haitians came up, he said, “Haitians? Do we need more Haitians?”

In another tweet Friday, Mr. Trump said he “never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country.” He added, “I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings - unfortunately, no trust!”

The White House didn’t respond to a question about whether Mr. Trump has personally visited Africa or Haiti.

Mr. Trump’s remark posed some translation problems as it spread around the world. Japanese daily Sankei euphemized, “countries that are dirty like toilets.” French newspaper Le Monde wrote, “shit countries,” while the BBC Persian Service wrote “countries that are toilet holes.”

Mr. Trump didn’t address the matter Friday during a 12-minute appearance in the Roosevelt Room, where he stood with a group of African-American leaders to mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. After signing a proclamation in honor of Dr. King, the president left the room without responding to shouted questions about his comments.

Reports of Mr. Trump’s comments drew condemnation from Africa and Haiti. South Africa’s ruling African National Congress said Mr. Trump’s remark was “offensive.” Botswana’s government summoned the U.S. ambassador to explain the comments. A spokeswoman for the African Union, the continental bloc, said she was “frankly alarmed” by the reports. United Nations human-rights spokesman Rupert Colville said “there is no other word one can use as racist.”

In addition, Africans took to social media to criticize and poke fun at the president’s remarks. Many posted pictures of beautiful scenes from their nations annotated with the hashtag #shithole or #whatmakesmycountryashithole.

The Haitian government said it is “deeply shocked and outraged” by Mr. Trump’s reported remark and called it “racist,” the Associated Press reported. Haitian Ambassador to the U.S. Paul Altidor told NPR that his government had formally summoned a senior U.S. diplomat in Haiti to explain the remarks.

The reaction wasn’t much better from Norway, which Mr. Trump was said to have praised. “On behalf of Norway: Thanks, but no thanks,” Torbjoern Saetre, a politician in Norway’s Conservative Party, said on Twitter.

Thursday’s meeting was called for Mr. Durbin and other lawmakers to discuss a bipartisan deal struck in the Senate on immigration.

The agreement gives Mr. Trump much but not all of what he has requested, according to Senate aides. It allocates $1.6 billion toward a border fence, which he asked for in 2018. It ends the diversity lottery, and it imposes some modest new limits on the ability of citizens and green-card holders to sponsor relatives.

It also gives the Dreamers a 10-to-12-year path to citizenship, extends to their parents three-year work permits, and offers green cards to people who have been living in the U.S. for years under Temporary Protected Status programs that Mr. Trump is ending.

On Friday, Mr. Trump rejected that deal wholesale, calling it a “big step backwards,” leaving the immigration talks in a state of confusion.

On Twitter, the president said that the “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.”

“Chain” refers to the current system of family-based immigration that enables naturalized citizens, after a sometimes yearslong waiting period, to bring over some close relatives.

Mr. Trump’s reference to “shithole countries” came in response to senators’ explanation of how they would reshape the diversity visa lottery. Under current law, applicants are chosen at random from countries that are underrepresented in U.S. immigration, which tends to draw a lot of people from Africa.

Under the bipartisan proposal, half those visas would be allotted to people from underrepresented countries, but a new merit-based system would be in place to “ensure those visas are awarded to those most ready to succeed in the United States,” according to a summary. Mr. Trump made his comment when he was told that would still mean admittance of some people from Africa, people briefed on the meeting said.

The other half of the visas would go to people who are losing protections under the Temporary Protected Status program for migrants from places that suffered disasters in the past. One of those countries is Haiti, which prompted Mr. Trump’s disparaging comments about that nation, one person briefed on the meeting said.

Looming over the debate is the need to fund the government. On Friday, Mr. Trump accused Democrats of seeking to “defund” the military, suggesting they would be to blame if government funding doesn’t come through.

“Sadly, Democrats want to stop paying our troops and government workers in order to give a sweetheart deal, not a fair deal, for DACA. Take care of our Military, and our Country, FIRST!” the president wrote on Twitter.

It was unclear whether Democrats would be willing to force a partial shutdown over the immigration dispute, though Democrats believe their hand has been strengthened by the controversy over Mr. Trump’s remarks.

—Joe Parkinson contributed to this article.

Write to Laura Meckler at [e-mail] and Rebecca Ballhaus at [e-mail]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-denies-questioning-migration-from-shithole-countries-1515766158