Refugee plan set up for Central American minors?
The Associated Press reports that the Obama administration is initiating a program to give refugee status to some young people from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador in response to the influx of unaccompanied minors arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. Under the program, immigrants from those countries who are lawfully in the United States will be able to request that child relatives still in those three countries be resettled in the United States as refugees. The program would establish in-country processing to screen the young people to determine if they qualify to join relatives in the U.S.
In a memorandum on Fiscal Year 2015 Refugee Admissions to the State Department released yesterday, President Obama allocated 4,000 slots for refugees from Latin America and the Caribbean for next year. The number is a fraction of the number of children who have already crossed the border into the United States and are awaiting deportation proceedings.
The administration’s program would not provide a path for minors to join relatives unlawfully in the United States, and would not apply to minors who have entered the country illegally. Instead, it aims to set up an orderly alternative for dealing with young people who otherwise might embark on a dangerous journey to join their families in the United States.
UPDATE (10/1 3 p.m. PST): For former BIA Member Lory Rosenberg’s criticism of the Obama administration’s refugee allocation to Central America, click here.
KJ