Donald Trump is doing everything he can to create a crisis at our southern border, so that he can campaign on it in 2020. While China is reaching out to developing and Third World countries around the world with their Belt and Road program, building infrastructure and stable governments, Trump is cutting off aid to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador that is used to advance democracy and minimize refugees.

If he wanted to stop refugees from appearing at our southern border, he would be working with those three countries, which we devastated with the Reagan's illegal Contra war, to build strong democracies and resilient economic and energy infrastructures. Instead, he is doing the opposite. Just like prison was the cornerstone of Nixon's brutal and racist War On Drugs and those increased American violence and devastated poor American communities, Trump's policies are producing more refugees, which is exactly what he wants so that he can point to all those brown people coming from the south and whip up his white racist base just in time for the next election.

This is Lee Atwater all over again, only without the sophistication and veneer of civilization. We need to join with Mexico to create a new Marshall plan for Central America.

-Thom