House Democrats criticized a social media post by Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) in which he called Haiti a “shithole” Tuesday.
"I couldn't disagree more with the disparaging comments of some of our Republican colleagues on the people of Haiti, who are people who deserve rights and dignity and freedom and prosperity just like people do everywhere throughout the world,” Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said in a press conference.
Collins’s Monday post came in response to another post about the current gang violence going on in Haiti. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in an update last week that more than 360,000 people have been displaced because of the violence.
“Some might call it a sh*thole,” Collins wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter read.
Crow’s fellow Foreign Affairs committee member, Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), said at the press conference that Collins’s post “displays the extraordinary contrast between how Democrats take a look at foreign affairs — the global affairs, people suffering, suffering from criminality, corruption, gang violence — versus those who just want to demean those who are suffering these things."
Collins’s Monday post mirrors reported comments from then-President Trump in 2018 in which he allegedly referred to immigrants coming from Haiti and African countries as being from “shithole countries.” According to The Washington Post, Trump's comment occurred in a meeting with lawmakers amid a discussion of protections for immigrants from multiple countries.
“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Trump reportedly said.
Trump would later deny making the comments, saying in a post on X that he “[n]ever said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country.”
“I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians,” Trump said in his post. “Probably should record future meetings – unfortunately, no trust!”
In an emailed statement to The Hill, Collins said that it "[s]eems like all the money we’ve spent over the years propping up Haiti was a bad investment, and current events should not be used as an excuse to import more foreigners into America.”
