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Jersey City Council President Rolando Lavarro is again condemning remarks made by GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. Reena Rose Sibayan | The Jersey Journal, Evan Vucci | AP Photo

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JERSEY CITY -- City Council President Rolando Lavarro, the first person of Filipino descent elected to the Jersey City council, is denouncing GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump for suggesting immigrants from the Philippines pose a threat to the United States.

In a statement issued by the city spokeswoman, Lavarro, a Democrat first elected to the council in 2011, said he is appalled by the "outrageous comments from this racist bully" and urged his supporters to vote for Trump's Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, in November.

"There is simply no end to Trump's inanities," Lavarro's statement reads. "Trump's temperament and bigotry is not befitting of a president. These latest comments are an insult to the nearly 18,000 Filipino Americans residing in Jersey City, 127,000 in New Jersey and over 3.4 million across the country. All good people should be outraged by Trump's hateful and divisive rhetoric."

At a Thursday rally in Maine, Trump included the Philippines when reading a list of countries he said had sent immigrants who had plotted to kill Americans. The presidential hopeful's comments prompted a lawmaker from the Philippines to seek a ban on Trump visiting the Southeast Asian nation.

"We are letting people come in from terrorist nations," Trump said last week. "That should not be allowed because you can't vet them. There's no way of vetting them, you have no idea who they are."

This isn't the first time Lavarro has condemned Trump. At a November council meeting, he assailed Trump for the real-estate mogul's widely debunked claim that he had seen thousands of people in Jersey City celebrating the 9/11 attacks.

In tonight's statement, Lavarro called Clinton "a leader with a world view that appreciates diversity and knows we are stronger when we're together."

A request for comment from Trump's campaign was not immediately returned.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.