Fox News apologized Sunday for a live “Fox & Friends” segment graphic that read, “Trump Cuts Aid to 3 Mexican Countries.”
“We want to clarify and correct something that happened earlier in the show,” the apology read. “We had an inaccurate graphic on screen … we just want to be clear the funding is being cut off to three Central American countries. We apologize for the error, it never should have happened.”
The headline appeared for 30 seconds during a discussion about punitive measures taken by President Trump to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
“I’ve ended payments to Guatemala, to Honduras and El Salvador. No more money is going there anymore,” Trump told reporters Friday. “We were giving them $500 million. We were paying them tremendous amounts of money, and we’re not paying them anymore because they haven’t done a thing for us.”
On Saturday, the State Department announced it was ending foreign assistance programs for the Northern Triangle, composed of three Latin American countries: El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
The decision came a day after Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen signed a “historic regional compact with Central America to stem irregular migration at the source.”
There has been a record-breaking surge of U.S.-bound migrants at the southern border as these countries face economic and social disorder. In February, a majority of the 76,000 migrants taken into U.S. custody were from Central America.
When asked if ending U.S. aid to the Northern Triangle countries is counter-productive when addressing immigration, Acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” “There’s a lot of good ways to help solve this problem.”
“Congress could do it, but they’re not going to. Mexico could help us do it. They need to do a little bit more. Honduras could do more. Nicaragua could do more. El Salvador could do more. And if we’re going to give these countries hundreds of millions of dollars, we would like them to do more.”
Last month, Trump declared a national emergency to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, but Congress passed a resolution to nullify the declaration. Trump has since vetoed it, and the House failed to override the veto.
Earlier this week, in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Trump said that aiming machine guns at undocumented immigrants would be a “very effective” deterrent — but vowed the United States would not use that method.
“Mexico must use its very strong immigration laws to stop the many thousands of people trying to get into the USA,” Trump tweeted Saturday. “Our detention areas are maxed out & we will take no more illegals. Next step is to close the Border! This will also help us with stopping the Drug flow from Mexico!”
Source: Fox News, Yahoo News, AP
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