<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="gmail-headline">DHS secretary: Trump used 'tough' language on immigration</h1>
<h2 class="gmail-sub-headline">Nielsen: 'I did not hear that word used'</h2>
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By TAL KOPAN AND VERONICA
STRACQUALURSI, CNN
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<time class="gmail-posted gmail-updated" datetime="2018-01-16">Posted: 12:10 PM, January 16, 2018</time>
<time class="gmail-updated" datetime="2018-01-16">Updated: 12:37 PM, January 16, 2018</time>
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<p>Department of Homeland Security
secretary Kirstjen Nielsen listens as President Donald Trump speaks
during a meeting on Jan. 4, 2018.</p>
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<p><strong>(CNN)</strong> - Homeland Security Secretary <a href="https://www.local10.com/topic/Kirstjen Nielsen?entityid=137866&lang=en" class="gmail-_magnetEntNameitent_211-1" target="_blank">Kirstjen Nielsen</a> told senators Tuesday she "did not hear" <a href="https://www.local10.com/topic/President Donald Trump?entityid=135642&lang=en" class="gmail-_magnetEntNameitent_211-1" target="_blank">President Donald Trump</a> say the specific word "sh--hole" during a meeting with lawmakers last week that she attended.
</p><p>"I did not hear that word used, no sir,"
Nielsen testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, when asked if
Trump used that word or similar language to disparage African countries
in the meeting with Trump and lawmakers on immigration policy.
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<p>"The conversation was very impassioned, I don't
dispute that the President was using tough language, others in the room
were also using tough language," Nielsen said.
</p><p>"I was struck more by the fact that the
conversation -- although passionate and appropriately so -- had gotten
to a place where many people in the room were using inappropriate
language in the oval office in front of the President. That's what
struck me," she added later.
</p><p>Upon repeated questioning about the specific
wording from Democrats, Nielsen grew frustrated when Sen. Richard
Blumenthal tried again.
</p><p>"I have been very patient with this line of
questioning," she said, saying she was testifying to discuss threats to
the homeland. "I have nothing further to say about a meeting that
happened over a week ago. I'd like to move forward."
</p><p>Sens. <a href="https://www.local10.com/topic/Dick Durbin?entityid=135223&lang=en" class="gmail-_magnetEntNameitent_211-1" target="_blank">Dick Durbin</a>
and Lindsey Graham, a Democrat and Republican respectively who were in
the meeting, have confirmed to the press the reports that Trump said the
words "sh--hole countries" to describe individuals from African nations
and had disparaging remarks toward Haitians being part of an
immigration deal -- all as part of a conversation about how the US
accepts immigrants.
</p><p>Other lawmakers in the room, Republican
Sens. Tom Cotton and David Perdue, have said they don't recall hearing
that word used. Trump has denied using the word, though he has said the
conversation was tough and has spoken privately with friends about the
remark playing well with his base.
</p><p>Asked whether it was possible Trump used the term even though she didn't hear it, Nielsen said: "Anything is possible."
</p><p>During his portion of questioning at
Tuesday's hearing, Graham said in reference to the immigration fight,
"This has turned into an s-show and we need to get back to being a great
country." Graham also said, in words directed to Trump, "close this
deal."
</p><h3>Booker's impassioned speech</h3>
<p>One of the newest members of the Judiciary Committee, New Jersey
Democrat Sen. Cory Booker, used his full time for questioning to talk
about the consequences of the President's words, clearly getting
emotional at times.
</p><p>He took Nielsen to task, quoting Martin Luther King Jr. on the ills of bystanders remaining silent.
</p><p>"This is very personal to me," said Booker, who is black. "I sit
here right now because when good white people in this country heard
bigotry or hatred, they stood up."
</p><p>"Why am I frankly seething with anger? We have this incredible
nation where we are taught it doesn't matter where you are from, your
race, your color, your religion, it is about the content of your
character," he said. "The commander in chief in an Oval Office meeting
referring to people from African nations and Haitians with them most
vulgar language ... that language festers."
</p><p>"Your silence and your amnesia is complicit," he added.
</p><p>He noted that a recent Government Accountability Office report
found that 73% of violent incidents since September 11, 2001, were the
result of white supremacy and right-wing violent extremists.
</p><p>"The fact pattern is clear of the threat in this country," Booker
said. "I hurt. When Dick Durbin called me, I had tears of rage in my
eyes ... and for you not to feel that hurt and that pain, and to dismiss
some of the questions from my colleagues ... that's unacceptable to
me."
</p><h3>$20 billion for a wall?</h3>
<p>"Madame Secretary, I hope you remember me," Durbin said at the start
of his questioning, a reference to her lack of recollection of the
vulgar language, before asking her repeatedly about the meeting they
shared.
</p><p>He asked Nielsen if she recalled the President saying during the
White House meeting that he wanted $20 billion in funding and he would
have the border wall built in a year.
</p><p>"I do remember him saying that he was concerned that given the
appropriations cycle that any deal that we made now would be limited to
this year's appropriation. I remember him asking to is there a way to
authorize the full down payment of the wall such that we can have
assurances that we could in fact build it," Nielsen said.
</p><p>The Department of Homeland Security recently told Congress that
it would take $18 billion over 10 years to build the 700 miles of wall
desired.
</p><p>The pair went back and forth about the meeting, with Durbin
asking Nielsen how she remembered each interaction going. When asked
whether she recalled the President saying he wanted more immigrants from
Europe and specifically Norway, Nielsen said he Trump admired they were
hard working, had low crime and that he had just met with the prime
minister.
</p><p>Nielsen also noted at one point that Graham used strong language
-- prompting Durbin to speak on his behalf. Graham had not yet arrived
at the hearing.
</p><p>"I will just say for the record, Senator Graham spoke up in a way
that I respect very much, countering what the President had said about
countries in Africa," Durbin said. "Reminding the president that his
family did not come to America with great skills or wealth, but they
came here as most families do. Looking for a chance to prove themselves
and make this a better nation. And in a defense of Senator Graham, his
strong words repeated exactly the words used by the President, which you
cannot remember."
</p><p>Durbin also asked if Nielsen supports a path to citizenship for
recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which
Trump ended last year but gave members of Congress until March to
implement an alternative or a fix.
</p><p>"I think we have to find a permanent solution," Nielsen answered.
</p><p>Durbin, unsatisfied with Nielsen's answer, asked her the same question again.
</p><p>"I believe that is part of the discussion and to make sure that
we don't continue temporary populations that continue to exist we should
talk about that," Nielsen said. "I'm not here to get in front of the
President or any final decisions on that particular issue, but, yes, I'm
happy to discuss it."
</p><h3>Grilling from Democrats</h3>
<p>The homeland security secretary is facing a grilling from senators in the wake of the President's remarks.
</p><p>The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Dianne
Feinstein, warned Nielsen that she was not happy with what she was
hearing out of her department thus far.
</p><p>Feinstein referenced recent reports that Nielsen's department was
continuing to consider a practice of separating children from parents
when apprehended at the border -- a policy first suggested last year by
then-Secretary John Kelly.
</p><p>"Candidly, woman to woman, I can't believe that, and I hope you
will clarify," Feinstein said. "Not only would such a systemic policy
infringe on the constitutional rights of parents. It is also callous and
stunningly un-American."
</p><p>Feinstein added that a that pediatric group have said such a policy would have a negative impact on children.
</p><p>"The America I know does not rip small children from their
parents, and I can't imagine the fear that a small child would feel if
this would happen," Feinstein said. "And for what? Because the child had
no part in this."
</p><p>Nielsen, in her answers, said the department has "not made any
policy decisions" on the topic, though she noted there are reasons at
times to separate children from who they arrive in the US with,
especially if there is a suspicion they are being trafficked.
</p></div></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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