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What Trump Gets Wrong About Central American Aid

Assistance doesn’t work. But ending it is likely to drive up immigration.

Funded in part by American aid, more than 500 security forces personnel assembled at the military base in San Vicente, El Salvador, for a raid on MS-13 gang members.Credit...Meridith Kohut for The New York Times

Anita Isaacs and

Ms. Isaacs is a professor of political science at Haverford College. Ms. Preston is a professor of economics at Haverford.

The Trump administration’s decision to cut off aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to punish their governments for failing to curb migration is a rash response to a real policy dilemma.

Cutting off aid will needlessly deepen tensions between Congress and the administration, and it will exacerbate migration from the region without twisting Central American politicians’ arms. But we shouldn’t pretend that the aid itself was doing much good — in fact, the best move right now would be to significantly change the way aid to Central America is structured, to push those countries to alleviate the political, economic and social pressures driving people north in the first place.

Immigration-fueled tensions between Congress and the White House are likely to reach a new high as a result of the decision to cut off aid to Central America. The president’s declaration of a state of emergency to build his wall already triggered a battle over the power to legislate; that fight will now grow to include the power of the purse.

The potential cost is greater than heightened acrimony: As each side will surely dig in its heels, sensible immigration and foreign policies, such as bipartisan efforts to address the rising number of asylum seekers or to prevent Guatemala from sliding into authoritarianism, will get lost in the scuffle.

The decision to cut off aid is bound to drive up migration numbers. American aid to Central America has a lot of problems: Its total amounts are paltry, and it is mostly distributed inefficiently in large blocks by foreign contractors.

Nonetheless, that aid is about the only outside support available to Central American governments confronting relentless poverty and violence. And some of the aid does work: There is good evidence that violence-prevention assistance to El Salvador has contributed to a decrease in the homicide rate, a likely factor behind the drop in migration to the United States.

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People waiting at the border crossing in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, to apply for asylum sometimes stay at this overcrowded migrant shelter for weeks, even months.Credit...Meridith Kohut for The New York Times

Cutting off foreign assistance is unlikely to persuade Central American governments to take actions that reduce the migratory flow. The amount of aid provided pales in comparison with revenue accrued through migrant remittances: The $500 million sent to these countries in 2017 was less than 3 percent of the money received as remittance each year. And as Venezuela has shown, the United States isn’t the only source of support — Mr. Trump’s aid cutoff simply opens the door for China or Russia.

Governments of the region, especially of Guatemala and, to a lesser degree, of Honduras, are indifferent to the plight of their poor who migrate. Especially as these governments turn increasingly authoritarian and criminal, they are more than happy to rid their countries of real and prospective opponents.

For too long, Central American governments and elites have gotten away with abdicating their fiduciary, social and legal responsibilities to their citizens. They have failed to collect tax revenue and to invest in social programs and job creation that alleviate the plight of their poor.

And they have aligned themselves with vast organized criminal networks. These networks, acting either independently or in alliance with increasingly sophisticated gangs, are responsible for terrorizing community members into fleeing their countries and for transforming migration into a lucrative criminal enterprise.

If the Trump administration is serious about forcing the hand of Central American governments, it can’t just cut off aid — an alternative policy approach is urgently required. Rather than turn a blind eye to creeping authoritarianism, it should pressure governments to become more democratic and less beholden to corrupt elites and criminal networks.

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El Salvador's president-elect, Nayib Bukele, at the Heritage Foundation in Washington in March.Credit...Eric Baradat/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

There could not be a more opportune or urgent moment to do so, particularly in El Salvador and Guatemala. Mr. Trump should reach out to the Salvadoran president-elect, Nayib Bukele, and help him make good on his campaign promise to ensure transparency by establishing a commission to investigate corruption and criminality.

Timing is even more critical in Guatemala. Congress has already pushed the country’s government to improve accountability by revoking the visas of corrupt public officials and business people. The administration should embrace and further these efforts, especially in the run-up to elections this year, in which several factions are trying to block the candidacy of Thelma Aldana, a crusading former attorney general, for president.

In all of these cases, American aid can be used both as a carrot to promote reform and as a support mechanism to help politicians like Ms. Aldana achieve needed reform.

As sometimes happens with this administration, Mr. Trump is half right. American aid is not working, and Central American governments need to be called to account for their mismanagement.

But ending that aid will just make everything worse. Instead of being a giveaway, it needs to be structured as an incentive for domestic reform. Not only will that cut down on migration, but it will help give Central Americans what they have been longing for: a safe and prosperous region where they can imagine a future for their children.

Anita Isaacs is a professor of political science at Haverford College. Anne Preston is a professor of economics at Haverford. They are the co-directors of the Migration Encounters oral history project.

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A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 27 of the New York edition with the headline: Pressure Central America, Don’t Cut It Off. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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