WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's administration is considering creating a pilot program giving refugee status to young people from Honduras as part of a plan to slow the influx of unaccompanied minors arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, White House officials said Thursday.
The plan would involve screening youths in their home countries to determine whether they qualify for refugee status. The program would be limited in scope and would start in Honduras, one of the world's most violent nations, but if successful, it could be expanded to include other Central American countries.
No final decision on the matter has been made, the officials said. Obama is expected to discuss the idea today during a meeting with the presidents of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
Similar in-country screening programs were set up in East Asia after the Vietnam War and in Haiti in the 1990s.
Under the proposal, the legal standard to qualify for refugee status would remain the same as it is for those who seek the status after arriving in the U.S., officials said, adding that the goal is to deter children who would not qualify for refugee status from attempting the dangerous trek to the U.S.
The officials briefed reporters ahead of Obama's meeting on the condition they not be identified by name.
Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina, speaking Thursday in Washington, said he hadn't heard about the plan but expected it to come up today. He said the three Central American nations have sought to pursue a unified approach. "We expect that the solution to this problem also is equal for the three countries," he said.
The United Nations has been pushing the U.S. to treat children arriving at the southern border from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador as refugees displaced by armed conflict. The trio of nations has become one of the most violent regions in the world in recent years, with areas of all three countries under the control of drug traffickers and street gangs who rob, rape and extort ordinary citizens with impunity.
Since last fall, the U.S. has seen a dramatic increase in the number of illegal aliens from the three countries arriving at the southern border, particularly children traveling without an adult guardian.
Since Oct. 1, more than 16,000 unaccompanied children from Honduras have been caught crossing the Mexican border illegally.
More than 57,000 unaccompanied children were arrested by the Border Patrol from October through June, mostly in the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas. Of those, 28.8 percent were from Honduras, 24.5 percent from Guatemala and 21.9 percent were from El Salvador.
The U.S. has resisted calling the situation a refugee crisis, though Obama and top officials have called it a "humanitarian crisis."
The refugee proposal was floated as Congress looked to be deadlocked on reaching any solution of its own on the border crisis with a five-week recess beginning at the end of next week.
Obama's $3.7 billion emergency spending request has stalled in an impasse over whether to change a 2008 anti-trafficking law to make it easier to return the Central American kids home. Democrats reject such changes; Republicans insist on them. House Republicans were to meet on the matter this morning.
"I think it needs to be resolved. That's why we're continuing to talk to our members about how to resolve it," House Speaker John Boehner said. "But as I said before, the White House needs to get its act together or it's not going to get resolved."
Boehner complained that the White House initially pushed for changes in the 2008 law but, after a backlash from immigration advocacy groups, backed off its support. Advocates say changes to the law would be a violation of the youths' due process.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who drafted the original provisions in the 2008 law to give additional protections to unaccompanied minors, said the administration now believes it needs more flexibility and has given her legislative language to consider. She said she is still reviewing it and hasn't made any decisions.
Kevin Appleby, director of migration policy for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the refugee proposal would be welcomed by the advocacy community as long as there was no attempt by the administration to pair it to changes to the trafficking law.
"It cannot substitute for providing full asylum rights for kids who have arrived in the United States," he said. "There is no quid pro quo."
It is unclear what would happen to children and families who have already made the trek to the United States if the refugee plan is implemented. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has repeatedly said there is no free pass for people who come to the United States illegally and that those who are caught crossing the border would be sent home.
Meanwhile, the government released data Thursday detailing how many of the unaccompanied youths have been released to sponsors in each state. States with established Central American communities have received the most children.
Texas took in 4,280 of the children through July 7, followed by New York with 3,347, Florida with 3,181, California with 3,150, Virginia with 2,234 and Maryland with 2,205, said the U.S. Health and Human Services Department's Administration for Children and Families.
The report said that from Jan. 1 to July 7, 166 of the children were placed in Arkansas.
In all, 30,340 unaccompanied children have been released to sponsors nationally in 2014, often to their parents.
The federal government must place them in the least restrictive setting while they are involved in immigration proceedings under terms of a class-action lawsuit settlement in 1997. The Administration for Children and Families said it tries first to place children with a parent, second with a relative and third with a family friend.
Information for this article was contributed by Alicia A. Caldwell, Luis Alonso Lugo, Erica Werner and staff members of The Associated Press.
A Section on 07/25/2014