Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX), reintroduced legislation last week that would reduce foreign aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras by $30,000 for each of its unaccompanied alien children placed in U.S. federal custody.
The Unaccompanied Alien Children Assistance Control Act is designed to disincentivize unaccompanied children from these nations from making the dangerous journey to the southern border. Burgess said the United States must hold the Northern Triangle countries accountable for raising their children.
“With the current humanitarian and security crisis overwhelming resources at our southern border, Congress must act to address the cycle of irregular migration from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. It is inhumane for the American government to incentivize human traffickers to bring children on the dangerous trek to our border,” Burgess, Republican Leader of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, said. “It also is wrong to charge American taxpayers both for generous foreign aid to the Northern Triangle region and for the expensive care required for unaccompanied alien children who reach our border from these countries – at the steep expense of more than $1.3 billion each year.”
El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras receive millions of dollars in foreign aid each year as part of the Central American Regional Security Initiative. Burgess said American taxpayers fund resettlement care for migrant children from these countries. Over the past five years, nearly 50,000 children came through the Office of Refugee Resettlement at a cost of $30,000 per child. The total expense of this care has averaged $1,352,760,000 per year.
“As I witnessed firsthand during my trip to the Northern Triangle countries last summer, the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are ill-equipped to combat the systematic corruption that plagues this region. Congress must not permit American taxpayer funds to line the pockets of corrupt foreign government officials,” Burgess said. “In this case, foreign aid can be a catalyst for change. This commonsense approach, which would begin to hold government officials of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras accountable for the well-being of their people, is the best way forward.”