Stop payments to corrupt governments

The president should stop all aid to the Central American countries that do not provide for their own people and respect their neighbors’ borders.

As the most generous country and people on earth, Americans pay billions of dollars in taxes to provide for our fellow Americans and to provide aid to improve the lives of people in many other countries.

At the same time, Americans watch their national debt load escalating more rapidly than the eye can see the digits change. We face the spread of a mysterious disease that paralyzes children and young adults, an opioid crisis and a fentanyl crisis. We have thousands of homeless children and veterans. Human trafficking is one of our fastest growing crimes, and we have become infested with members of the violent gang MS-13. Innocent Americans have been killed and otherwise victimized by countless illegal aliens.

Each country’s first obligation is to its own citizens. Accordingly, President Donald Trump has vowed to put America first in all calculations. That is as it should be — if only the rulers of the countries south of us did the same thing.

Unfortunately, the Central American countries allowing their citizens to stampede Mexico’s border and march north are notoriously corrupt. How much of the aid we provide them makes its way to their citizens? How much of it winds up in the Swiss bank accounts? Why are the highest-ranking members of these governments so wealthy and 99% of their citizens so poor?

The more we fund their corruption, neglect and criminal conduct, the longer their citizens and ours will suffer. Countries must stand on their own to claim sovereignty and to be accountable to their people for their failures and corruption. We only enable their incompetence and corruption when we pay them millions of dollars. We can’t afford it. Just as the rulers of our Central American neighbors should tend to their own citizens, so should we.