White House Shithole

It's not news that Trump is a vulgar man with racist tendencies. Nevertheless, I don't think that the infamous "shithole countries" remarks are best understood as racist. The real disdain, I think, is for poor countries and poor people - the kind who can really benefit from coming to the US and are desperate to do so.

Unfortunately, this kind of loose cannon remark is exactly the thing guaranteed to torpedo any rational discussion of sensible immigration policies. Exactly what constitutes "sensible immigration policies" is a difficult and extremely emotional subject of course, but I think that there are a couple of principles that ought to be paramount: US immigration should be regulated for the benefit of the US and its citizens and should not violate our principles of equality under the law.

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