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Newly confirmed Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson actually said that Black slaves were immigrants Monday during his speech to department employees, reports USA Today.

From USA Today:

“That’s what America is about, a land of dreams and opportunity,” Carson said. “There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less. But they too had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great-grandsons, great-granddaughters, might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land.”

…A HUD spokesman told Good Morning America that no one present for Carson’s speech “was confusing voluntary immigration with involuntary servitude. Please.”

Carson, a retired neurosurgeon who vied for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, was confirmed and sworn in as HUD secretary last week. He’s never held public office before, nor is he versed in housing policy.

Carson’s comments were so wrong and infuriating that he drew quick and angry reactions across Twitter, reports NBC News.

SOURCE: USA TodayNBC News

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