Trump Lacks Authority To Cut Aid To Central America Over Migrant Caravan - US Lawmaker

A US law prevents President Donald Trump from unilaterally cutting off aid to Central American nations for allowing a migrant caravan to pass through en route to Mexico to illegally enter the United States, the senior Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Eliot Engel, warned in a press release on Monday.

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd October, 2018) A US law prevents President Donald Trump from unilaterally cutting off aid to Central American nations for allowing a migrant caravan to pass through en route to Mexico to illegally enter the United States, the senior Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Eliot Engel, warned in a press release on Monday.

"Fortunately, Congress - not the President - has the power of the purse, and my colleagues and I will not stand idly by as this Administration ignores congressional intent," Engel said.

A caravan of 5,000 to 7,000 migrants from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador has crossed into Mexico en route to the United States, prompting multiple threats from Trump, who vowed in a Twitter post earlier on Monday to completely cut off or dramatically reduce foreign aid to the three Central American nations.

Engel cited a law known as the Impoundment Control Act, which he said prohibits the president from withholding or impounding money appropriated by Congress.

The lawmakers said his office has reached out to the Government Accountability Office - which is statutorily authorized to track acts of impoundment - to ensure that the president does not violate the law.

Trump also said on Monday that he has alerted the US military and Border Patrol of a national emergency after Mexico was unable to stop the caravan of migrants.