Trump threatens Guatemala after its court blocks asylum deal

[left-of-center2012]

Source: Washington Post

President Donald Trump is threatening Guatemala over immigration after its high court blocked its government from signing an asylum deal with the United States.

Trump tweeted Tuesday that Guatemala has decided against signing a “safe-third agreement” requiring Central American migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. to instead apply for those protections in Guatemala — even though Guatemala’s government had said it did not intend to make such a deal.

Guatemala’s top court recently blocked the government from signing an agreement.

Trump says he’ll now look at targeting the money Guatemalans working in the U.S. send back to their country or at imposing tariffs as punishment.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-threatens-guatemala-after-its-court-blocks-asylum-deal/2019/07/23/1cf5192c-ad51-11e9-9411-a608f9d0c2d3_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.957c2cd07dac

[Doodley]

1. More bully-boy diplomacy by Tweet.

[murielm99]

2. I listened to the BBC World News

over the weekend. They had a very intelligent government official explain why they did not like trump's plan. He explained how it jeopardized their security and finances.

It made perfect sense to me. I wish we had someone equally intelligent in our government to speak for us. Maybe we will have that again when we get rid of trump.

[justgamma]

3. Why would anyone

sign an agreement with this administration. They have already shown that they will pull out of them anytime for any reason.

[RussBLib]

4. I guess it's time for another coup in Guatemala.

I hope I'm joking. We have meddled so much in Central American politics, why should they trust the U.S. at all?

[KPN]

5. Basic Foreign Policy of the Moron Administration: carry a big stick!

[riversedge]

6. ...Trump says he'll now look at targeting the money Guatemalans working in the U.S. send back to the

What the heck does Trump mean by this????


.............Trump says he’ll now look at targeting the money Guatemalans working in the U.S. send back to their country or at imposing tariffs as punishment.

[christx30]

7. The idea I saw floated is to

put a fee at point of sale for any Western Union Moneygrams going south of the US border, and use the money for his dumbassed wall. So to send $500, the person on the US side would have to fork over $575.
Mexico received almost $30 billion in remittances in 2017. So if trump could do this, it’d net a huge amount.

[Everyman Jackal]

8. If he does that

I would hope that another country like Canada would step up and have all the money sent by people in the US who are sending money South would send it North and then Canada would send it South free of charge. Is it even legal to charge these people if they are not sending it South for nefarious reasons?

[customerserviceguy]

9. There could be a mechanism set up

where ANY overseas transfer of money through Western Union, etc. would have "withholding" taken out of it, and then the sender gets to claim that as taxes withheld at tax filing time. If the money is made by someone here legally, and being sent to a family member overseas, then they'd get credit for the money when it comes time to settle up with the IRS. If it's been made by someone using a fake SSN, then they'd lose it.

It may be able to be set up by executive order. If so, I'm surprised that Trump hasn't tried it yet.

[Igel]

14. The numbers are impressive.

https://www.centralamericadata.com/en/search?q1=content_en_le:%22Remittances%22&q2=mattersInCountry_es_le:%22Guatemala%22 claims $9.3 billion were sent to Guatemala in remittances (not intergovernmental or NGO-based aid) in 2018. Don't let the "9.288" number through you--the convention is to use . instead of , . You can't have $9.3 million in remittances for the year if the remittances in December were over $800 million.

Guatemala's GDP was around $78.5 billion in 2018. So almost 12% of its GDP was from remittances. Cut it off, and the GDP plummets by 12%.

Withholding $300 million in development aid to the Triangle countries is chump change.

[Bayard]

10. This man could limbo under a pole 2" off the ground.

Or just slither.

[ripcord]

11. None of this matters

As long as fleeing street gangs and violent crime aren't considered valid reasons for asylum claims the overwhelming majority of Central Americans will not qualify.

[TryLogic]

12. Trump has absolutely no idea how to solve problems. I think he might be too dumb.

I hope many American voters are aware of this.

[PatSeg]

13. That's Trump's only way of dealing with people

or countries, threaten and bully them. He never tries to negotiate and certainly wouldn't dream of compromise. It is his way or the highway and even when he gets his way, he might still follow up with some form of punishment.