Failing to stem the tide of illegal immigration will "have drastic implications for our own country," according to former Director of National Intelligence and U.S. Amb. John Negroponte.
"We can't accommodate everybody who wants to come to United States," Negroponte told "The Cats Roundtable" on 970 AM-N.Y. "We are only 5 percent of the world's population. If you just have hundreds of thousands and even millions of people trying to get to the United States in an undocumented way, it's going to have drastic implications for our own country."
The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations added the breakdown of Central American economies is the root of the issue that needs to be addressed.
"I think [President Donald Trump] has been right to discourage these people from wanting to come, but that's on the negative side, that's on the stick side," Negroponte told host John Catsimatidis. "On the carrot side, I think, we have to give more thought to how we can contribute to an improvement in of the lives of the people in those Central American countries."
Contented Central Americans would not have a desire to migrate to the U.S., he said.
"It's a reflection of turbulent both political and economic conditions south of our border, particularly in Central America and the so-called northern triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador," Negroponte added.
"If you can do things that would help better the economic and social conditions in those countries, then the people would not be as desperate to leave and migrate somewhere else."
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