U.S. to permanently end foreign aid for Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
U.S. to permanently end foreign aid for Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador
State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Image
The State Department announced Monday afternoon that it is cutting off any further aid to Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador until the countries take "concrete actions to reduce the number of illegal migrants coming to the U.S. border."
Why it matters : The purpose of the U.S. foreign assistance targeted by Trump is to address the "root causes" of migration through governance reforms, security assistance and economic development, according to Axios Expert Voices contributor Erol Yayboke. Cutting off that aid could exacerbate conditions in the Northern Triangle and lead to even more migration.
The big picture: This move has been in the works since March , with President Trump ramping up pressure on the three Central American nations to slow the surge of migrants. The State Department will work with Congress to reprogram the hundreds of millions of dollars in aid it provides to Central America elsewhere, according to spokesperson Morgan Ortagus.
- Roughly $400 million worth of aid already approved for projects in 2017 and 2018 in those countries will continue, per the AP.
- Reuters notes that the plan is likely to face opposition from lawmakers in Congress who view it as cruel and likely to increase the flow of migrants from Central America.
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Big election move by Trump. Do something outrageous that will cause hundreds of thousands of new migrants , and then use the issue as your main campaign theme in 2020 to inspire your voters.
That assumes the funding they were receiving somehow stemmed the tide of illegal immigration.
As usual, your logic if lousy and faulty.
John - this isn't Sickago politics. Trump told the three major countries in March that if they didn't do anything to assist is stopping the illegal migration, he was going to cut their "Aid" funding. Have they done anything??? Hell no. The numbers have increased. Each of the three countries were given funding specifically for the assistance in halting the illegal migration, but when the CBO examined how the funding was being used, they found that 55% of the "Aid" monies were going to the politicians and cops and not to aid.
Time to pull the plug on their "stolen pocket" money.
I think it would be cheaper and more effective to make these countries into places that people want to live than building a wall and throwing tens of thousands of human beings into jail or detention.
Can't anyone figure that out?
Wouldn't that amount to "nation building"?
How did that work out in Iraq?
At any rate, those countries destinies are not our responsibility.
I agree, but simply throwing money at corrupt regimes probably isn't going to do the job.
We gave them money and it did not do us any good.
Taking it away will make our issues with them worse.
How? Was the money being used in ways that kept people in those countries?
I would say he is already going against his new agreement with Mexico...
Continuing to enrich those country's governments, military, and police, with some of it probably going to the cartels....is not helping the people.
And completely withdrawing everything will leave a vacuum for someone else to fill.
Plus, nothing to say about his agreement that he seems ti have abandoned?
Three more countries to fall to China's Belt and Road initiative.