18 June, 2019
United States President Donald Trump has threatened to remove millions of people who entered the country illegally "as fast as they come in."
Trump wrote on Twitter that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement next week will "begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States."
The series of comments come as Trump prepares to officially start his re-election campaign Tuesday night. Limiting immigration was a central issue of Trump's 2016 campaign. And he is expected to use the same issue in the upcoming 2020 campaign.
The president also suggested that he will soon sign an agreement on migration with Guatemala. The agreement would make Guatemala the country where migrants fleeing El Salvador and Honduras would go to seek asylum instead of the U.S. or Mexico.
Trump said the Central American country would become part of efforts to limit migration in the area with a tweet on Monday:"...Guatemala is getting ready to sign a Safe-Third [Country] Agreement," he wrote.
A U.S. State Department delegation traveled to Guatemala last week to seek approval for the "safe third country" policy. If it is signed into law, it might be the first agreement of its kind between the U.S. and a Latin American country. However, Guatemala has not made a public statement that it is ready to complete the deal.
In the same Tweet, Trump praised Mexico for its effort to deal with migration at its borders: "...Mexico, using their strong immigration laws, is doing a very good job of stopping people long before they get to our Southern Border," he wrote.
Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department had announced plans to freeze some aid money to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said aid already targeted for the three so-called "Northern Triangle" countries would be provided. However, she said new money would not be