Trump rejects idea of summit with Mexican, Central American presidents

President Donald Trump said Friday that there was no need for a summit with the Presidents of Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador because "they understand" the implications of his recent move to cut stabilizing aid to the Central American countries.

Trump's dismissal of a summit comes in light of a recent uptick in Mexico's apprehensions of migrants at its southern border, shared with Central America. It remains unclear whether the increase was spurred by Trump's threat to shut down the US-Mexico border if Mexico didn't stop migrants from illegally crossing the US border or simply from greater immigration traffic.

Trump said such a meeting was unnecessary......

When asked by Fox News whether he should arrange a summit with the four Presidents, Trump said such a meeting was unnecessary.

“No, no, I don’t need a summit. I think we’ve done very well without the summit,”....”They pulled in 1,500, 1,500, yesterday. They brought them back,” he added. “They pulled in over 1,000 the day before. Over 1,000 the day before that; today, I haven’t gotten the number, but I mean it’s a lot.” the President said

The bigger problem is not that they need killing here, but they need to figure how to stop them being so successfully bad in their own countries that they are driving vast numbers of people, often women and children away. I saw one case portrayed where a woman had worked 8 years in the US, went back to her Central American country, bought 3 automobiles and stared a little taxi company. Her business was doing OK. Then a gang demanded a war tax (protection), soon a 2nd gang also demanded a war tax, then a 3rd gang demanded a war tax. She could no longer survive that economically and she said she is again leaving home to come north where she can survive.

How do we protect people like that who just want to make a modest living at home? How do we arrange a temporary worker program so that people can earn a grubstake and go back to help their own economy? Impossible, if they are going to be robbed by violent crooks in their own countries. At a campground in Alabama I spoke with a Mexican in 2006 who was doing post hurricane painting there for an Atlanta business that was paying him less than minimum wage. I speak Spanish and asked him if he would rather live here or get a paying job in Mexico. He said he would rather live there if he could get pay. I asked what he liked best in the US. He said “here the police are honest.”

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.