Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner is planning an initiative to revive and bolster U.S. aid to Central America in exchange for cooperation on illegal immigration, a proverbial carrot to the stick of President Trump’s freezing of aid in response to high levels of migration from the region.
Kushner, the Treasury Department, and the Mexican government are planning an investment conference in Mexico City that would provide incentives for governments to curb U.S.-bound migration and for individuals to stay in their home countries. As part of the deal, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador would pledge to enact business-friendly measures, someone familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The event is expected to take place in March or April, with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin a potential attendee.
The administration hopes, in part, to recast U.S. foreign aid, which Trump has frequently decried as wasteful, as an exchange. The administration suspended more than $500 million in development assistance pledged to Central American countries last year amid a surge of migrants crossing the U.S. border, but later released a portion of this after the countries cooperated on several measures.
Last year, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador cited an agreement by the United States and Mexico to deliver $10 billion in development aid to Mexico and Central America. Lopez Obrador came into office pledging to spend $30 billion on Central American development over five years and has stressed the contribution from the U.S. to fulfilling this pledge regularly.
Kushner pursued a similar initiative in Bahrain, intended to raise $50 billion in investment, infrastructure, and tourism to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and neighboring Arab countries. But the deal fell apart amid a boycott by Palestinian leaders who wanted to precondition the aid on a two-state plan.
