Mexico's not paying for his wall, but Trump’s paying Mexico $20 million

There’s no way Mexico is ever going to pay for Trump’s proposed wall along the southern border. So now Trump’s going to pay Mexico in his fight against immigrants.

“In a recent notice sent to Congress, the administration said it intended to take $20 million in foreign assistance funds and use it to help Mexico pay plane and bus fare to deport as many as 17,000 people who are in that country illegally,” the New York Times reports.

The deportation funds now heading to Mexico were originally approved by Congress in the form of foreign aid. But members of Congress bitter over a lack of funding for their anti-immigration crusade have redirected money that may have otherwise gone to building schools or helping stabilize war-ravaged countries.

“Congress intended for this money to lift up communities dealing with crime, corruption and so many other challenges, not to expand this administration’s deportation crusade,” Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) told the Times. “I want answers about why the State Department thinks it can ignore Congress and dump more cash into deportation efforts.”

The move is especially embarrassing as it highlights the failures of Trump’s hateful “zero tolerance” policy at the border, which calls for the criminal prosecution of any immigrant who enters the country without authorization, even if they’re seeking asylum. That in turn has ripped thousands of families apart.

“Zero tolerance” is not working as intended; even more migrants are trying to enter the U.S.

Meanwhile, Republicans running for re-election seem to understand Trump’s wall is a political loser. Of the more than 100 Republican incumbents running in competitive districts this year, just 18 are openly calling for the U.S. to build Trump’s border wall, according to new analysis from ThinkProgress.

Who knows, maybe Trump will offer to pay Mexico to build his wall after all.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.