WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- The United States said on Wednesday that it will resume foreign assistance fundings to three Central American countries -- El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
The three countries have been intensely pressed by and finally reached pacts with the United States over immigration issues.
"Earlier this year the U.S. temporarily suspended aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras until they took sufficient action to reduce the number of migrants coming to our border," U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted on Wednesday. "We're seeing great progress and will resume targeted aid today."
In a separate statement released by U.S. State Department on Wednesday, Pompeo said he had notified the U.S. Congress about the restarting of the frozen aid, which will be used to "support programs that are advancing our joint efforts to mitigate illegal immigration."
The total amount of the lifted funding was about 143 million U.S. dollars, reported by The Washington Post citing an anonymous source.
U.S. President Donald Trump first announced his decision to cut 450 million dollars in foreign aid to the three countries this March, blaming them for not doing enough to stem the flow of immigrants fleeing violence, poverty and crime.
Critics denounced Trump's move to freeze the aid as counterproductive, since the goal of the U.S. funding was to improve conditions in those countries so that citizens would not leave to seek a better life in the United States.
In late September, Washington reached an agreement with Honduras allowing the United States to send asylum-seekers passing through the country back to Honduras, similar to the deals made with Guatemala and El Salvador.
