Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney defended the Trump administration’s plan to cut off aid to three Central American countries, adding that El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras could do more to curb the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States.
In a statement on Saturday, the State Department said that it would end millions of dollars in funding to the three countries that make up the Northern Triangle as the flow of immigrants crossing Mexico into the US has increased. The action came after President Trump threatened on Friday to shut down the US-Mexican border after Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said the border has reached a “breaking point” and predicted that more than 100,000 illegal immigrants will cross into the US this month.
Mulvaney, who also serves as the White House budget director, said Congress could step in to help solve immigration problems at the border, “but they’re not going to.”
