A young woman protests.Image source,Getty Images
Caption,The Trump administration has ended immigration protections for citizens of Haiti, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.
The conversation between Trump and the senators took place this Thursday in the Oval Office of the White House.
In it, the president rejected the legislators' proposals to find alternatives to eliminating the program known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which benefits citizens of countries such as Haiti, El Salvador and some Africans who reside on U.S. soil.
Media outlets such as The New York Times have reported Trump's disparaging remarks about these countries in the past.
According to this newspaper , which cited officials present at another meeting held in June, the president said that Haitians "have AIDS" and that Nigerians would never "go back to their huts" in Africa once they saw the United States.
The White House then denied that Trump had made these statements.
Condemnations and apologies in the US
Republican congresswoman Mia Love, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, called on Trump to apologize on Twitter for his "unacceptable" behavior and labeled his latest comments "nasty, divisive, and elitist."
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Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings tweeted: "I condemn this unforgivable statement and this degradation of the office of the presidency."
Another Democratic lawmaker, Cedric Richmond, said Trump's comments "are further proof that his 'make America great again' agenda is really a 'make America white again' agenda."
Reaction in El Salvador
" The Foreign Ministry always issues statements based on confirmed official information. We expect the United States authorities to confirm or deny the statements attributed to President Trump," has been El Salvador's reaction so far, expressed by Foreign Minister Hugo Martínez on Twitter and shared by the Presidential Palace.
