Some folks are lobbying President-elect Donald Trump (R) to trade importing Venezuelan oil for getting fewer Venezuelan illegal aliens across our southern border.

American oil executives and bond investors are urging President-elect Donald Trump to abandon his first-term policy of maximum pressure on Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro and instead strike a deal: more oil for fewer migrants.

Their rationalization:

They say making a deal with Maduro would cut migration and help temper US energy prices.

This isn’t naïve, nor is it ignorant. These folks know better than that. This is their cynicism.

The deal won’t cut the flow of illegal aliens from Venezuela; no deal made with Maduro can be trusted. He’s already demonstrated his level of integrity with his repeated welching on his promises to his own people.

Nor is it necessary to import Venezuelan oil to temper US energy prices. We have plenty of oil, and natural gas and coal, with which to do that, and Trump’s moves to cut the excess out of the regulations limiting our domestic production is all that’s necessary.

There is this:

An agreement would also help check adversaries such as China and Russia.

Dealing with Maduro isn’t necessary for that, either, though. A more active foreign and trade policy involving Latin America as a whole (and involving Africa) would do that. American administrations of both parties just need to stop taking those to large, resource-rich parts of the planet for granted. Our enemies do not take them for granted, to our detriment.