President is turning human misery into election votes
IT IS responsible of any country’s leader to discourage unauthorised border crossings while repeating their nation’s commitment to giving a fair hearing to asylum claims.
But with each passing day, Donald Trump makes clearer his pleasure at the political advantage he may derive from the 5,000-strong migrant caravan heading towards the US border.
Turning the crisis into a vote winner ahead of next month’s midterm elections, while sending every possible signal that such immigrants are not welcome in his America, is the same ploy which helped him pick up the keys to the White House two years ago.
The majority of those now walking north through Mexico will almost certainly be turned away when they arrive.
But Trump’s demonisation of these migrants fleeing the violence in their homelands is plainly wrong.
This week, and without evidence, he tweeted that “criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in”, and in his fury, he then threatened to slash foreign aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador even further in his budget.
This comes just four years after a report from the conservative Heritage Foundation warned that cutting aid would exacerbate violence and turmoil in Central America, sending thousands more fleeing.
Which may, after all, be exactly what Trump wants – a non-stop stream of foreign “invaders” to stoke fear and division ahead of his run in 2020.