"At the Secretary’s instruction, we are carrying out the President’s direction and ending FY [fiscal year] 2017 and FY 2018 foreign assistance programs for the Northern Triangle," a State Department spokesperson told ABC News, referring to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. "We will be engaging Congress as part of this process."
These three countries are the primary source of migrants to the U.S., but for years the U.S. has worked with them to stabilize their political environments and economies and end violence and corruption so that migrants wouldn’t leave in the first place.
Trump hinted at the cuts earlier on Friday, telling reporters,"I’ve ended payments to Guatemala, to Honduras, and to El Salvador. No money goes there anymore."
While the president has threatened these cuts before, this time the administration is actually following through.