U.S. to expand program for C. American influx

In this photo taken May 20, 2016, Deputy Homeland Security Adviser Amy Pope listens as President Barack Obama speaks in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington.
In this photo taken May 20, 2016, Deputy Homeland Security Adviser Amy Pope listens as President Barack Obama speaks in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's administration soon will expand efforts to help Central American families and children legally immigrate to the United States in another surge of migrants caught crossing the border illegally.

photo

AP

In this photo taken July 7, 2015, immigrants from El Salvador who entered the country illegally stand in line at a bus after they were released from a family detention center in San Antonio.

White House Deputy Homeland Security Adviser Amy Pope said Tuesday that the administration will expand in-country refugee processing for families arriving from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala and begin an effort to relocate temporarily to Costa Rica some families facing the greatest threats.

The government also is broadening a nearly 2-year-old program to allow some Central American children to reunite with parents already legally living in the United States.

Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that program now will allow some u̶n̶m̶a̶r̶r̶i̶e̶d̶ siblings*, in-country parents and other caregivers to move to the U.S. with a child approved for the program.

The efforts are designed in part to tackle the crush of tens of thousands of families and unaccompanied children caught crossing the border illegally this year. But it is unclear how quickly the expanded efforts may affect the flow of illegal immigration.

"The goal is for individuals who have legitimate humanitarian claims not to take the perilous journey and really accept our outstretched arms of relief," Mayorkas said on a conference call with reporters.

Since the start of the budget year in October, more than 51,100 people traveling as families and more than 43,000 unaccompanied children have been caught illegally crossing the Mexican border. The number of such travelers has been steadily rising this year after significant decreases between the 2014 and 2015 budget years.

The Obama administration first began the effort to allow child immigrants legally into the U.S. in December 2014. More than 600 have moved to the United States since then. Mayorkas said 2,884 children have been approved for the program and more than 9,500 applications are pending.

That number is dwarfed by the thousands of children and families who are apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol while trying to enter the country each month. In June, for example, more than 11,000 children and families crossed the border illegally, according to statistics provided by the Department of Homeland Security.

In January, the administration first announced that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees would pre-screen would-be refugee families. U.S. officials now will handle more in-country processing for those families.

Pope said refugee programs in Central America are being expanded because "current efforts to date haven't been sufficient." The new programs, she said, are designed to help "promote safe and orderly immigration and border security."

Pope said it is unclear how many families and children may benefit from the enhanced programs, but officials expect requests for help to increase steadily as the programs get underway in the coming months.

In the meantime, Costa Rica soon will start accepting up to 200 people at a time who are in immediate need of refuge for up to six months. Obama administration officials also said Mexico has agreed to increase the number of Central American refugees it will accept under its own program.

Officials said the program would ramp up over the next few months, but they were vague about how many more people would receive protections.

"We are very confident the numbers are increasing, that thousands will be benefiting from these programs in the near future," said Anne Richard, an assistant secretary at the State Department.

Humanitarian advocates credited the administration for taking additional steps, but they acknowledged that the scale of the Central American refugee crisis remains daunting.

"The most recent step they are taking is an acknowledgment that people in the region have very serious protection concerns," said Wendy Young, president of Kids In Need of Defense. But she added: "How many more people will be reached through these new initiatives I don't think they know."

Information for this article was contributed by Alicia A. Caldwell of The Associated Press and by David Nakamura of The Washington Post.

A Section on 07/27/2016

*CORRECTION: An expanded federal program aimed at helping Central American families and children legally immigrate to the United States will allow some siblings, in-country parents and other caregivers to move to the U.S. with a child approved for the program. This story incorrectly said siblings would have to be unmarried.

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