Feb. 3 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to withhold U.S. aid to countries south of the border if they don’t stop drugs from coming north into the United States.
He made the comments during a tour of the Customs and Border Protection National Training Center in Sterling, Va.
“I want to stop the aid. If they can’t stop drugs from coming in, ’cause they can stop them a lot easier than us. They say, ‘oh we can’t control it.’ Oh great, we’re supposed to control it,” Trump said. “So we give them billions and billions of dollars, and they don’t do what they’re supposed to be doing, and they know that. But we’re going to take a very harsh action.”
Acting Commissioner of CBP Kevin McAleenan said the United States has seen an increase of fentanyl, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine coming across the borders, as well as families and unaccompanied minors.
“We want strong borders. We want to give you laws. We want to stop the catch and release nonsense that goes on. You catch somebody and you release them. You know they’re bad,” Trump said. “They’re pouring in from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, all over. They’re just pouring into our country.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has complained about El Salvador by name. In January, Trump faced backlash for questioning why the United States can’t have more immigrants from places like Norway and fewer from places like El Salvador, Haiti and African nations.
“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Trump said, according to lawmakers attending an Oval Office meeting with him about immigration.
“These countries are not our friends, you know,” Trump added Friday. “We think they’re our friends, and we send them massive aid, and I won’t mention names right now,” he said. “But I look at these countries, I look at the numbers we send them, we send them massive aid and they’re pouring drugs into our country and they’re laughing at us.”
