Trump means what he says.
In an attempt to curb the border crisis, Trump gave the Central American Northern Triangle countries (Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras) an ultimatum: Take action to keep migrants from illegally crossing the border into the U.S. or else lose aid funding.
Since the countries, from which many migrant caravans have come from, are obviously not aligned with Trump on his goal to solve the immigration crisis in America, the president announced Tuesday that he is following through with his promise to take back millions of dollars that had been going to help the countries.
Check out this breaking news that hit Twitter:
Fox News had the following to say:
he State Department announced Monday it will cut new foreign aid to the "Northern Triangle" countries --Â Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador -- unless their governments take "concrete action" to stem the flow of migrants towards the United States.
The aggressive move came less than two weeks after the Trump administration reached a last-minute deal with Mexico, which called for the country's deployment of more troops to its own southern border and tighter asylum protocols. The U.S. and Mexico reached the accord shortly before the White House was set to impose a series of escalating tariffs on its southern neighbor.
President Trump previously pushed in March to cut $615 million in aid to the Northern Triangle, noting that the nations have been home to some of the migrant caravans that have marched through Mexico to the U.S. border to claim asylum, in some cases fraudulently.
On further review, the State Department said the administration has decided to continue to provide $432 million for anti-gang, education, and health initiatives. U.S. officials said the review looked at roughly 700 projects funded with fiscal 2017 money by the United States in the three countries and concluded that a significant number were too far advanced to end them.
However, the latest plans showed roughly $370 million from the fiscal year 2018 budget will no longer be spent on the Northern Triangle and approximately $185 million in funding from the 2017 budget will be withheld, at least for now.
A State Department official told Fox News a re-evaluation would be concluded no later than April 2020.
"We will not provide new funds for programs in those countries until we are satisfied that the Northern Triangle governments are taking concrete actions to reduce the number of migrants coming to the U.S. border," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said. "This is consistent with the president’s direction and with the recognition that it is critical that there be sufficient political will in these countries to address the problem at its source."
CNBC has more details:
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday cut hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, after Trump blasted the three countries because thousands of their citizens had sought asylum at the U.S. border with Mexico.
The plan will likely encounter stiff opposition in Congress.
Lawmakers, including some of Trump’s fellow Republicans as well as Democrats, have chafed against the president’s repeated decisions to disregard spending bills passed by Congress, some of which he has signed into law himself.
Lawmakers who opposed the plan said it was cruel to cut off aid to countries grappling with hunger and crime and that the move would be counterproductive because it would more likely increase the number of migrants than decrease it.
Congressional aides said the administration told them it would reallocate $370 million in aid to Central America that lawmakers had approved for fiscal 2018, and suspend an additional $180 million Congress had approved for fiscal 2017.
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