Vice President Mike Pence and other members of the Trump cabinet are holding a conference in Miami with Central American leaders, pressing them to discourage their citizens from migrating to the United States, says the LA Times.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly and Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin will be in attendance, along with officials from the so-called Northern Triangle of Central America or Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — countries known for their high murder rates, extreme poverty and violence.
“Under the Obama administration and in response to an abrupt flood of minors crossing into the United States in the summer of 2015, Congress allotted more than $1 billion for the Northern Triangle over a two-year period,” says the Times. “The money helped finance both security and social projects, including anti-corruption programs, police training, judicial reform and youth leadership. Murder rates did drop some, and there were sporadic advances in prosecuting corrupt officials.”
But the White House has proposed cutting that funding by 39 percent. Farm groups have worried that the new administration’s hard stance on immigration could make it harder to fill labor demands.