Politicians and lawmakers from both parties are critical over the remarks of President Donald Trump, which are offensive to the home countries of some immigrants. However, Trump denies saying the controversial profane words that have stalled the progress of the immigration reform.
The President reportedly commented that some immigrant countries are unhelpful and unfortunate during a meeting at the White House on Thursday. He also allegedly referred to African and Haiti nations with foul words while discussing immigration policy.
However, on Trump's official Twitter account, he denies the vulgar remarks during the meeting with bipartisan lawmakers saying: "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!"
This issue seems to hinder the progress of the immigration reform. With that, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said lawmakers need to move on from the controversy sparked by Trump's reported Oval Office comments. He added that this should not stop the whole procedure.
With that, former Virginia Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe said in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper that the President has held up the progress. He said that he thinks Trump wants the deal, but White House policy aide Stephen Miller, who is also an immigration hardliner, is advising Trump to demand restrictions on the immigration system and funding for the border wall.
Meanwhile, the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC), which helps DACA applicants, released a statement saying that Trump's words are unacceptable. They added that the US President "would attack a bipartisan effort with his racist, xenophobic, and ill-informed language and beliefs."
Trump has expressed his interest in restricting immigration levels to cut or eliminate some long-standing parts of the U.S. immigration system. However, none of the bills passed. Aside from that, as part of broader immigration-restriction efforts, the White House also led a campaign to reduce the number of refugees to the United States.
