President Donald Trump should not follow through with his threat to close the United States' border with Mexico as the economic impact would be significant and because it could create a vacuum in Central and South America, Rep. Adam Kinzinger warned Tuesday.
"It's our third largest trading partner," the Illinois Republican told CNN's "New Day." "I think we are really in a fight right now with Central and South American for the heart and soul of what the future of that region looks like."
The United States has neglected its own hemisphere to too long, and as a result, Chinese influence is taking hold in Central and South America, said Kinzinger.
"The more we put up closed borders or withdraw aid from those areas, we're actually leaving a vacuum for China to come in and fill because they're happy to write whatever check we pull back from El Salvador, for instance," said Kinzinger, adding he's "not a big fan" of Trump's call to pull back aid from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.
"I understand the kind of thought behind it because we're giving money to these countries and we're expecting to have an outcome," said Kinzinger. "Let's keep in mind when it comes to El Salvador, too, we have a new president that's incoming there and I have a lot of optimism for him, but the current president of El Salvador just derecognized recently Taiwan's independence and they did that because China started investing a bunch of money in El Salvador."
Meanwhile, Kinzinger said he does think there are migrants whose claims for asylum have merit, and there must be some compassion, but still, he wants to see a secure border wall go up and an immigration system that works.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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