Washington, June 19 (RHC)-- U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has slashed around $550 million in aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras due to thousands of their citizens seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Congressional aides affirmed the administration told them $370 million in aid to Central America, that lawmakers had approved for fiscal 2018, would be relocated, and that an additional $180 million for fiscal 2017 would be suspended. In March, Trump warned his administration would cut these funds.
“We’re not paying them anymore because they haven’t done a thing for us,” Donald Trump said in regards to his “dislike” of the three nation’s migration policies. A U.S. official said the administration would review the funding by April 2020.
Next week, ICE will begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have found their way into the United States. According to the White House, they will be removed "as fast as they come in." U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is currently detaining more than 52,500 migrants a day, most of them are asylum seekers protected by international law, escaping political persecution, gang and drug-related violence.
U.S. lawmakers who oppose the plan said it was “cruel” to cut off aid to countries grappling with hunger and crime and that the move would be counterproductive as it would more likely increase the number of migrants than decrease it.
Meanwhile, Mexico also announced that rather than deploy its 6,000 new National Guard across the country by June 30, it will do so by June 18 at 13 specific points along the border, a move critics say continues the militarization techniques introduced by the previous two administrations.
This move is part of Trump’s imposed policies on Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s government to impose more strict migration policies in Mexico in a bid to hinder the thousands of asylum seekers crossing Central America to reach the U.S. border.
And as Trump has made reducing migration one of his signature policy pledges, Guatemalan Defense Minister Luis Miguel Ralda confirmed on June 3rd that U.S. troops are already in the country, specifically in the Guatemala-Mexico border department of Huehuetenango to prevent migrants from entering Mexico in the first place.
On Monday, Trump tweeted that "Guatemala is getting ready to sign a Safe-Third Agreement." Under this sort of agreement, migrants would be required to seek asylum in Guatemala if they want to reach the U.S. And it was pointed out that Canada struck a pact with those characteristics back in 2002.
