Donald Trump

Livid Over Temporary Protective Status Change for Immigrants, Kenney Says Trump Is a ‘Bully' and ‘Punk'

Kenney questioned Trump's upbringing saying "his family didn't do a good job raising that guy."

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Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney unleashed an insult-laden tirade against President Donald Trump on Wednesday, denouncing the Trump administration's decision to end protections for Haitians and other immigrants living in the United States.

"There is no compassion whatsoever in the White House. I'm just beside myself with sadness because our president is a bully, our president is a punk, and he just doesn't get it."

"I don't know where he was raised, but his family didn't do a good job raising that guy," Kenney said. (You can watch a portion of Kenney's comments on Trump above or the full set below.)

Kenney made the remarks after calling on the Trump Administration to reverse recent decisions to end Temporary Protective Status for Haitians, Sudanese, and Nicaraguans. Hondurans are still awaiting a decision on their status.

Often abbreviated as TPS, the program was created in 1990 and currently allows for 435,000 people from nine countries affected by natural disasters or war to live and work in the United States.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney fired back at President Trump this afternoon, calling the White House’s decision to end TPS “un-American.” On Monday, thousands of Haitians in the area were told their Temporary Protected Status would officially end by July 2019. NBC10s Aaron Baskerville reports.

On Monday, nearly 60,000 Haitians were notified they must leave the U.S. by July 2019. All moved to the U.S. to escape devastation left behind by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake in 2010. Seven years later, the Carribean nation is still struggling to rebuild, but the Department of Homeland Security said conditions have improved enough to send people back.

"Could you imagine if they ended TPS for the Irish when we came here in the 1840s? Sent us all back to starve in our home country?" Kenney, an Irish-American, said while flanked by Haitians and immigration advocates.

Kenney said the decisions are "simply un-American." He said deporting these immigrants will be a detrement to the local economy. The mayor also questioned what would happen to TPS immigrant children, who were born in the U.S. and thus are citizens.

"This country used to be a country of compassion and empathy and it is now a country of anger and divisiveness and Donald Trump is the reason why we've gotten where we are," Kenney said adding that Trump should "get out" of the U.S.

NBC10 has reached out to the White House for comment.

You can watch Kenney's full comments below:

Mayor Jim Kenney unleashed long-simmering anger at President Donald Trump on Wednesday following the White House’s announcement to end Temporary Protective Status for immigrants of several countries staying in the United States.
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