outgoing Chief of the White House says : 'Nothing but compassion' for migrants

The remarks contrast sharply with Trump's rhetoric, which regularly calls on its extremely white political base by adopting a hard line on immigration.

Washington:

Outgoing White House leader John Kelly said he had "only compassion" for undocumented migrants heading for the United States and undermined the idea of ​​a border wall in an interview Sunday, contradicting President Donald Trump's harsh speech on immigration.

Speaking of a partial government shutdown starting on the ninth day due to an impasse on Trump's requests for funding for a wall on the US-Mexican border, Kelly told the Los Angeles Times: "To be honest, this is not a wall. "

"The president always says" wall. "Often, frankly, he says" barrier "or" fence, "now he tends to prefer steel slats," Kelly said.

"But at the beginning of the administration, we left a solid concrete wall when we asked people what they needed and where they needed it."

A former naval general who headed the military command for Latin America, Kelly was Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security before becoming the White House's chief of staff in July of last year.

But his relations with the president would have deteriorated and he should be replaced at the end of the year by Mick Mulvaney, currently director of the budget.

Trump was excoriated by opposition Democrats, who oppose his request for $ 5 billion in funding from the Border Wall, after blaming him for the deaths of two Guatemalan children incarcerated in the United States in a tweet on Saturday.

"The vast majority of illegal immigrants are not bad guys ... I have compassion only for them, young children," Kelly told LA Times newspaper, adding that many of them had been manipulated by traffickers.

These remarks contrasted sharply with the rhetoric of the president who regularly calls on his extremely white political base by adopting a hard line on immigration.

Building a wall along the US-Mexico border (3,200 km) was a central part of his 2016 election campaign.

He spoke of an "invasion" of migrants and complained about "many gang members and very bad people" among a caravan of thousands of immigrants who visited the United States in October.

He also threatened to cut off aid in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, despite migrants from these countries claiming to flee poverty and gang violence.