U.S. To Give Mexico $20M To Help Deport Migrants
The Trump administration wants to pay millions of dollars to help Mexico deport thousands of migrants who have entered the country hoping to reach the United States, CNN reports.
State Department officials sent a notification to Congress, explaining that $20 million would be used to cover the cost of plane and bus tickets, and deport migrants in Mexico to their countries of origin. Part of “migrant removals pilot,” the funds are meant to be transferred from the State Department to the Department of Homeland Security.
This could result in the deportation of up to 17, 000 migrants in Mexico.
“This one time infusion of assistance will help the (government of Mexico) address, and potentially deter, irregular migrant flows, which will help keep illegal immigrants from entering into the United States through the southwest border.”
Under the “migrant removals pilot” program, part of which would be financed by the United States, Mexican authorities would be in charge of detention, interdiction, asylum adjudication, and other similar proceedings.
The Mexican government has not agreed to the plan yet, but it is evaluating it.
If the government of Mexico was to agree with the proposal, this would not be the first time for the two countries to collaborate on curbing illegal immigration. A report from the Congressional Research Service shows that the United States provided Mexico with funding worth $24 million in the past.
The “migrant removals pilot” proposal comes only a day after the U.S. government released the latest statistics pertaining to illegal border crossings, and a day after Mexico’s foreign minister met with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
These developments come as no surprise, considering the fact that U.S. President Donald Trump is widely-considered to be an immigration hardliner. But, according to the Business Insider, the main driving force behind Trump’s harshest immigration policy is, in fact, White House Policy Adviser Stephen Miller.
The US government plans to pay $20 million to help Mexico deport thousands of migrants who have entered the country hoping to reach the United States https://t.co/4AxHAEDJNo
— CNN (@CNN) September 13, 2018
Ironically, Miller himself is a descendant of asylum seekers. His grandparents found refuge in the U.S. after escaping anti-Jewish persecution in Belarus.
As the Center for Investigative Reporting’s Reveal reported in June, Miller – who grew up in Santa Monica, California – was introduced to white nationalist ideas as an undergraduate at Duke University, and has since continued to cultivate and develop his white nationalist ties.
Curbing illegal immigration on the Southern border of the United States through sending funds to Mexico has, according to CNN, been criticized by Amnesty International, which called on U.S. Congress to put an end to Trump’s plan, citing “international obligations to protect human lives.”
As the Atlantic noted, migrants from countries such as Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala are leaving their homes due to extreme poverty, corruption, and high crime rate in their respective countries of origin.
