Trump warns Guatemala over immigration issue

President Donald Trump warned Tuesday Guatemala of future tariffs if it fails to control sending immigrants to the United States. He threatened to not to proceed with a planned safe third country agreement.

Trump blamed the country forming caravans of migrants and even sending through it such people to the US who has criminal records.

The president tweeted, “Guatemala … has decided to break the deal they had with us on signing a necessary Safe Third Agreement. We were ready to go… Now we are looking at the ‘BAN,’ Tariffs, Remittance Fees, or all of the above. Guatemala has not been good. Big U.S. taxpayer dollars going to them was cut off by me 9 months ago.”

However, it is yet to understand which specific policies Trump referring to.

In Trump’s presidency immigration has been one of the key issues and he has repeatedly promised for a tougher crackdown for lowering flow of immigration into the US.

Earlier this year, Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Mexico too asking the government to act more on restraining illegal immigration. The two nations agreed to do more in restricting influx of asylum seekers.

The Guatemala government had planned to hold a summit with Trump and it was expected a deal could be signed, but its constitutional court blocked such meeting.