The White House on Tuesday announced a substantial expansion of a program to admit Central American refugees to the United States, conceding that its efforts to protect migrants fleeing dangerous conditions has been inadequate and left too many vulnerable people with no recourse.
Currently, the program allows unaccompanied Central American children to enter the United States as refugees. It will be expanded to include their entire families, permitting siblings over the age of 21, parents and other relatives who acted as “caregivers” to qualify.
Officials could not say how many refugees might be eligible under the expansions, but the change is a significant one,
essentially opening an entirely new channel for Central American families to gain legal entrance to the United States.
“Our current efforts to date have been insufficient to address the number of people who may have legitimate refugee claims,” Amy Pope, a deputy homeland security adviser, said in a conference call to announce the changes. She said the White House was moving forward with the revisions because officials recognize that “the criteria is too narrow to meet the categories of people who we believe would qualify under our refugee laws, but they just don’t have the mechanism to apply.”
The White House also said it had reached an agreement with Costa Rica to serve as a temporary host site for the most vulnerable migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras while they wait to be processed as refugees, once they have undergone security screening in their home countries. The United Nations high commissioner for refugees has agreed to set up an unusual process for reviewing requests for people in their home countries to qualify as refugees and send them to Costa Rica if they are facing immediate danger.
The changes appeared certain to be denounced sharply by Republicans and particularly Donald J. Trump, who has centered much of his presidential campaign on a call to seal the borders of the United States and shut out immigrants and refugees.
In making the revisions, President Obama was bowing to years of bitter complaints from advocates for immigrants and refugees who have argued that he has turned a blind eye to the plight of refugees at the southern border even as he has expanded his effort to welcome people fleeing violence and persecution from elsewhere, including those displaced by Syria’s civil war.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/27/u...column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
Currently, the program allows unaccompanied Central American children to enter the United States as refugees. It will be expanded to include their entire families, permitting siblings over the age of 21, parents and other relatives who acted as “caregivers” to qualify.
Officials could not say how many refugees might be eligible under the expansions, but the change is a significant one,
essentially opening an entirely new channel for Central American families to gain legal entrance to the United States.
“Our current efforts to date have been insufficient to address the number of people who may have legitimate refugee claims,” Amy Pope, a deputy homeland security adviser, said in a conference call to announce the changes. She said the White House was moving forward with the revisions because officials recognize that “the criteria is too narrow to meet the categories of people who we believe would qualify under our refugee laws, but they just don’t have the mechanism to apply.”
The White House also said it had reached an agreement with Costa Rica to serve as a temporary host site for the most vulnerable migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras while they wait to be processed as refugees, once they have undergone security screening in their home countries. The United Nations high commissioner for refugees has agreed to set up an unusual process for reviewing requests for people in their home countries to qualify as refugees and send them to Costa Rica if they are facing immediate danger.
The changes appeared certain to be denounced sharply by Republicans and particularly Donald J. Trump, who has centered much of his presidential campaign on a call to seal the borders of the United States and shut out immigrants and refugees.
In making the revisions, President Obama was bowing to years of bitter complaints from advocates for immigrants and refugees who have argued that he has turned a blind eye to the plight of refugees at the southern border even as he has expanded his effort to welcome people fleeing violence and persecution from elsewhere, including those displaced by Syria’s civil war.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/27/u...column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
