Reuters / Carlos Barria
A federal judge has questioned whether Donald Trump’s “America First” slogan is being used as a code for justifying discriminatory immigration policies. On the same day the president boasted about the “America First” strategy at the United Nations, San Francisco District Judge Edward Chen was presiding over a case in which he could block the Trump administration from overturning parts of a policy that offers U.S. residency to nationals from war-torn or poverty-stricken countries. Chen asked a Justice Department attorney if “America First” was an attempt to conceal a racist policy and referred to a when the president dubbed places on the African continent “shithole countries.” Chen said: “The inference plaintiffs make is that this is code for ending immigration status for those who are non-white. What do you make of that?” Chen didn’t make a decision at the end of the hearing,