Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) criticized President Trump’s threats on Wednesday to cut off aid to Honduras over a migrant “caravan.”
Espaillat said that taking such an action “is not going to work” because it signifies a much larger, global issue.
President Trump warned if Honduras’s government didn’t stop a caravan of migrants headed to the U.S., the Trump administration would withhold funding to the country, “effective immediately.”
“That’s not going to work,” Espaillat told Hill.TV co-hosts Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton.
“Guatemalans migrate to Mexico, Mexicans migrate to the United States, Africans migrate to Spain and Italy, Libyans migrate to Italy, Middle Easterners migrate to Germany and Britain, so this is a global issue of the have and have nots,” he continued.
The congressman argued that the Trump administration “can’t stop the human rights situation and natural disasters.”
“They will flee that nation and try to secure their lives or do better for their families,” he said.
What’s worse, Espaillat argued, is that the U.S. has “abandoned” Latin America and the Caribbean, which has created a “a vacuum of leadership.” Other countries like China have stepped up to help fill that void where the U.S. is lacking in leadership.
“Even countries like China are now seeking to fill that gap and play a pivotal role in helping some of these nations out and having a proactive and production relationship with those nations,” the congressman told Hill.TV.
Espaillat said the only way to address the global issue is legislation that addresses the root causes of immigration.
“What’s going to work is that we go right there on the ground and we have legislation that reexamines the root causes of that migration from Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, which is where many of the young people with children are coming from.”
— Tess Bonn
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