Trump vows to cut Central America aid, calls migrant caravan an emergency
WASHINGTON/TAPACHULA: President Donald Trump on Monday vowed to begin curtailing tens of millions of dollars in aid to three Central American nations and called a caravan of migrants bound for the United States a national emergency as he sought to boost his party’s chances in November 6 congressional elections.
“Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were not able to do the job of stopping people from leaving their country and coming illegally to the US. We will now begin cutting off, or substantially reducing, the massive foreign aid routinely given to them,” Trump wrote in a series of Twitter posts.
Trump and his fellow Republicans have sought to elevate the caravan, which has made its way into Mexico bound for the US border, and immigration as campaign issues ahead of the midterm elections, in which his party is fighting to maintain control of the US Senate and House of Representatives. “Remember the Midterms!” Trump wrote in Twitter posts decrying the caravan and attacking Democrats on immigration.
Trump, who has taken a hard line toward illegal immigration since taking office last year, also wrote that he had alerted the US military and Border Patrol “that this is a National Emergy,” though he did not say what actions he was planning.
In campaigning for Republican candidates last week, Trump highlighted the caravan issue. Trump travels to Texas, a key border state, later on Monday to campaign for Republican US Senator Ted Cruz, who is seeking re-election.
Since Trump became president last year, the United States has already moved to sharply decrease aid to Central America. In 2016, the United States provided some $131.2 million in aid to Guatemala, $98.3 million to Honduras, and $67.9 million to El Salvador, according to official US data.
By next year, those sums were projected to fall to $69.4 million for Guatemala, $65.8 million for Honduras, and $45.7 million in the case of El Salvador. Combined, the cuts amount to a reduction of almost 40 pe rcent for the three nations. Trump was not specific about how much more he wanted to cut the aid.
At least 5,000 migrants, mostly Honduran, massed late on Sunday in the Mexican city of Tapachula near the Guatemalan border, local police said.