Some Central American Children Will Now Be Able to Legally Join Families in the US Esther Yu-Hsi Lee - Think Progress
go to original November 17, 2014

Some Central American children may soon have an opportunity to join their parents who are living lawfully in the United States through a refugee program that will begin next month, Vice President Joe Biden has announced. The program is intended to cut down on the mass exodus of children from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala currently crossing the U.S.-Mexico southern border on their own.

“Urgent challenges demand urgent action — backed by political will and political courage. It’s hard, but it can be done,” Biden said during his opening remarks at an Inter-American Development Bank event with the presidents of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, addressing the plan to improve security conditions in those three countries known as the Northern Triangle.

A State Department public review of a request sent to the Office of Management and Budget indicated the program would allow lawfully present “anchor parents” to “claim a relationship with child(ren) in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala” for refugee status out of family reunification purposes through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (RAP). The public review noted that about 2,500 respondents are expected to apply through this program. “Children who are found ineligible for refugee admission but still at risk of harm may be considered for parole on a case-by-case basis,” a State Department press release pointed out.

The program may be limited in scope, however, since the U.S. caps its allocation of the program at 4,000 slots for refugees from Latin America, including Cuba. What’s more, undocumented parents could not qualify and the program would not affect the more than 66,000 Central America children apprehended at the southern border this year.

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