Trump Threatens Border Closing and Cuts in Aid to Central America

X Facebook Email Flipboard Pinterest Print Reddit

Last updated on April 2nd, 2019 at 10:34 am

As his political situation becomes more desperate, Donald Trump has begun to threaten even more desperate moves to stop the influx of undocumented immigrants at the Mexican border.

Yesterday Trump “threatened to close the U.S. border with Mexico next week, or at least large sections of the frontier, if Mexico ‘doesn’t immediately stop all illegal immigration coming into the United States’ from the region.”

Then this morning the Trump administration announced it is cutting direct U.S. aid to three Central American countries, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

The State Department issued a statement saying that it will suspend 2017 and 2018 payments to the three countries which are the homes of many of the migrants who have been coming to the U.S. border seeking asylum.

Neither Donald Trump nor anyone within his administration gave any explanation for this latest move. Trump has spoken in the past about punishing the three countries and has made slowing immigration from them one of the core issues of his presidency.

The announcement comes as Trump threatens to shut down the U.S. border with Mexico over immigration.

If the president does “shut down” America’s southern border next week it will hit the economies of both the U.S. and Mexico. Trump, however is still talking tough, saying, “I am not kidding around.” He said that he could stop all trade” with Mexico.

Trump’s base is feeling let down because he hasn’t kept his main campaign promise: to build a long, impenetrable wall along the border to stop illegal immigration. He has repeatedly threatened to close the border if he doesn’t get his way.

Yesterday he posted a series of tweets on the subject of immigration, writing:

“The DEMOCRATS have given us the weakest immigration laws anywhere in the World. Mexico has the strongest, & they make more than $100 Billion a year on the U.S. Therefore, CONGRESS MUST CHANGE OUR WEAK IMMIGRATION LAWS NOW, & Mexico must stop illegals from entering the U.S. through their country and our Southern Border.”

“Mexico has for many years made a fortune off of the U.S., far greater than Border Costs. If Mexico doesn’t immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States through our Southern Border, I will be CLOSING the Border, or large sections of the Border, next week.”

“This would be so easy for Mexico to do, but they just take our money and “talk.” Besides, we lose so much money with them, especially when you add in drug trafficking etc.), that the Border closing would be a good thing!”

Trump’s Tweets Are Filled With Lies and Empty Threats

As he tries to make U.S. trade policy through Twitter, Donald Trump is continuing to use his main two weapons: lies and empty threats. For some reason he thinks that doing this will help him get his way, but it never has.

Donald Trump is a failed president, with no successes on either immigration or trade policy, and his latest desperate moves clearly prove it. He is trying to “shore up” his base, but all he is really doing is proving to the majority of American voters that he should not be president.

It is now just 584 days until the next presidential election on November 3, 2020. Let’s hope that America can survive that long without any further damage being done to our country by the current occupant of the White House.

[wl_navigator]

Author
Recent Posts

Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.