Trump floats cutting foreign aid when criminal illegal immigrants enter US

President Trump on Wednesday suggested the United States could withhold foreign aid from countries that allow criminal illegal immigrants to come to the United States.

“I have to say that many of these countries we give tremendous amounts of aid to — tens of millions of dollars — and we’re working on a plan to deduct a lot of the aid,” Trump said at a roundtable about addressing immigration loopholes.

“I happen to believe that it’s not so hard. You know, they’ll let you think they’re trying to stop this — they’re not trying to stop it,” Trump continued. “I think they encourage people from leaving. They don’t want the people that we’re getting in that country. 

{mosads}

“So, we’re going to work out something where every time somebody comes in from a certain country, we’re going to deduct a rather large amount of money from what we give them in aid, if we give them aid at all,” Trump said to a round of applause from the crowd.

Congress released its budget for fiscal 2018 earlier this year that largely maintained the foreign aid funding levels from the year before, despite proposed cuts from the White House.

Trump’s calls Wednesday for the U.S. aid structure to be “radically changed” came during a roundtable in Long Island, where he was joined by New York Republican Reps. Pete King, Dan Donovan and Lee Zeldin, administration officials and local law enforcement leaders.

Four individuals who were victims of MS-13 gang violence also attended.

The group discussed loopholes in U.S. immigration laws and how to address MS-13 gang violence.