I wish it were a joke, 1 April. It's just dumb. Americans do not understand foreign aid is a more direct, better solution to the current immigration at our southern border than the Wall.
"U.S. Officials say aid to El Salvador helped slow migration. Now Trump is canceling it"
By Kevin Sieff Kevin SieffLatin America Correspondent April 1, 2019 at 8:03 PM
"MEXICO CITY — Until last week, U.S. officials held up El Salvador as proof that foreign aid could help curb migration. The partnership between the two countries drew praise from diplomats, members of Congress and even America’s top border enforcement official.Then President Trump announced that he was withdrawing economic assistance to the Central American country and its neighbors Guatemala and Honduras.
“They haven’t done a thing for us,” the president said Friday."
Pure "transactionalism." It is not a smart deal tho, Mr. Tweety. It will cost us more!
It was foretold . . . Do dumb things and reap the wind!
"The Migration Disconnect"
Why Central Americans Will Keep on Heading to the United States
By Stephanie Leutert 7 Nov 018
"As thousands of migrants from Central America slowly make their way through Mexico and toward the U.S. border, President Donald Trump’s administration has hewed to its hard-line message. Trump has promised to stop the caravan, calling it an invasion and claiming that “Middle Easterners” were in its midst. Last week, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that it would deploy 5,200 soldiers to the U.S.-Mexican border ahead of the caravan’s arrival. Already, the first contingent of soldiers is putting up barbed wire.
Like the government’s much-touted border wall, the troop deployment illustrates Trump’s portrayal of Central American immigration as a serious national security threat to the United States. Yet the move is but one in a string of expensive policies that have sought to slow migration from Central America in recent years. The military presence is no likelier than the billions of dollars Washington previously invested in border security and regional development to change the fundamental drivers pushing people to leave their homes and head north."
The US government keeps doing the wrong thing to work the immigration issues . . . ISSUES PLURAL. There are good ideas to address the root cause of migration, but no political backing or will to bring these solutions to fruition.
"There are, in fact, U.S. policies that could help. For Central Americans struggling with hunger and collapsing local economies, short-term economic relief could go a long way. A commodity stabilization program could provide support to coffee farmers as they battle recurring coffee leaf rusts or switch to more profitable crops. Guatemala and Honduras already have national funds in place to this end, and the United States could help support their development. A regional public works project could put people to work upgrading roads, ports, and national parks or engaging in environmental cleanup efforts, particularly in areas that are lagging economically and therefore susceptible to outward migration. Public irrigation infrastructure projects could provide immediate responses for drought-stricken areas across the region. The United States, Mexico, Canada, and the private sector could contribute to a fund supporting these projects and drawing from the budgets of Central American countries themselves."
The GOP and most conservatives do not like the Guest Worker Visas, so that is off the table for solving migration issues. So how does this end?
"There is no single, complete fix—and all progress comes with setbacks. But unless Washington makes a genuine effort to address the conditions that drive people out of their homes, Central American migrants will continue to march north and seek their futures in the United States."
So what dies the trump Administration do? They take the worst possible optin and will likely see MORE migration as a result.
"U.S. Officials say aid to El Salvador helped slow migration. Now Trump is canceling it"
