California Gov. Gavin Newsom with his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom visit the tomb of Archbishop Oscar Romero at Metropolitan Cathedral in San Salvador, El Salvador, Sunday, April 7, 2019. Newsom visited the tomb of Archbishop Romero, the Salvadoran priest assassinated in 1980 due to his advocacy for human rights and the poor. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, Pool)
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday his visit to El Salvador serves as a counter-narrative to what he called President Donald Trump’s demoralizing and toxic rhetoric about Central American migrants.
“Right now you have a president that talks down to people, talks past them, demoralizing folks living here and their relatives in the United States,” Newsom told reporters to close out the first day of his trip.
“I think it’s important to let folks know that’s not our country — that’s an individual in our country who happens at this moment to be president.”
Newsom, a Democrat who took office in January, chose El Salvador as his first international trip because California is home to both the United States’ largest Salvadoran population and its busiest border crossing.
His visit comes as Trump moves to cut billions of dollars in U.S. aid to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala and demands those three nations and Mexico do more to stop migrants from entering the United States.
There has been a surge of immigrants seeking asylum from the Central American nations.
About 3,000 unaccompanied children and 12,000 family members from El Salvador have arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border since October.
Newsom kicked off his trip with a visit to the tomb of Saint Oscar Romero, the Salvadoran priest assassinated in 1980 at the start of the nation’s civil war because of his advocacy for human rights and the poor.
The visit served as a symbol of Newsom’s desire to learn about the social and economic hardships forcing Salvadorans to leave.
After a private tour of the cathedral where Romero preached, Newsom lit a candle near Romero’s tomb in the cathedral basement alongside his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and California state Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo.
Newsom’s trip includes meetings with President Salvador Sanchez Ceren, U.S. Ambassador Jean Manes and President-elect Nayib Bukele.
He’ll also tour a reintegration center that processes Salvadorans deported from the United States and Mexico, see a cultural demonstration in a rural town, meet with human rights groups and discuss economic development and gang intervention.
Newsom said he’s figuring out in real time what more California can do to help tackle the root causes of migration, namely deep poverty and gang violence.
El Salvador is one of the world’s most violent countries, with the gangs MS-13 and Barrio 18 exerting strong control. The minimum wage is just $300 per month. /gsg