Government officials, aid workers and activists in Central America are mystified by U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to cut off nearly $500 million in aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador in response to what he calls an immigration crisis. Over time, they say, it will only worsen the problem.
At risk of falling on the chopping block are development programs that work to tackle the root causes driving migration: poverty, inequality, violence and corruption. The aid is meant to promote democracy-building, good governance, trade, agriculture, education, health, public safety and law enforcement. Experts say all of those areas play a direct role in whether people feel they can get by or even survive in their home countries.
“It’s illogical and it’s irresponsible. ... You’re talking about long-term challenges that are going to require long-term, sustainable solutions,” said Adriana Beltrán, a Central America specialist at the Washington Office on Latin America. “So rather than helping to stabilize the situation and try to address these long-term challenges, the cut in assistance will only make the situation worse. Gutting important programs,” she added, “will eventually lead to more migration, more insecurity, more corruption, more impunity in these countries.”
Rick Jones, who works in El Salvador as the youth and migration policy adviser for Catholic Relief Services, counsels, “It will be sending the message, ‘Help is not on the way...and you’re going to be left on your own,’” Jones said. “And basically people left on their own are going to be more desperate and more people are going to leave.”
Vicki Gass, Oxfam America senior policy adviser for Central America and Mexico, said that axing funding for programs that have been running for years, would, in many cases, “waste U.S. taxpayer dollars that have already been invested” and “foster the same instability that is making people flee in the first place.”
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