Obama Administration Considering Giving Refugee Status to Honduran Children
The Obama Administration is considering a new option to curb the flow of unaccompanied child migrants: granting refugee status to young people from Honduras.
White House officials said ths week that the plan will involve screening young people from Honduras -- one of the most violent countries in the world -- to see if they qualify for refugee status.
However, officials said there has not been a final decision about the plan, and it is one of many ideas that the Obama administration is considering in an effort to curb the surge in unaccompanied child migrants crossing the border into the United States. White House officials told President Obama about the plan prior to his meeting Friday with leaders from Central American countries, Fox News Latino reports.
The United Nations has been pressuring the U.S. to treat unaccompanied children coming to the U.S. from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala as refugees who had to flee violent conflict. The three Latin American countries have become some of the most violent nations in the world in recent years. All three countries are gripped by violence due to drug traffickers and gangs who have been known to rape, rob and extort citizens.
Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina told reporters before the meeting at the White House that he was not aware of the Honduras proposal.
"I would not find a reason to treat some in one way, and others differently," he said. "Here we have had an aligned message from the president of Honduras, of El Salvador and myself, and we expect that the solution to this problem also is equal for the three countries."
An unusually high number of immigrants from those countries have crossed into the U.S. though the southern border, many of whom are unaccompanied children.
More than 16,000 unaccompanied children have arrived from Honduras since Oct. 1, and more than 30,000 undocumented Honduran families have been arrested.
Obama and top officials in the administration have called it a "humanitarian crisis".
The refugee proposal comes as Congress has reached an impasse on reaching a solution to the border crisis before Congress goes on recess.
President Obama's request of $3.7 billion in emergency spending from Congress has not been approved as of yet, and Congress is divided over whether to amend a 2008 anti-trafficking law to make it easier for Central American children to be deported to their countries of origin. Democrats are against changing the law, while Republicans insist on changing it to facilitate deportations.
"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, according to Fox News Latino. "But as I said before, the White House needs to get its act together or it's not going to get resolved."
Boehner said the White House initially wanted to amend the law, but decided against it after facing harsh backlash from immigration rights groups. Immigrant rights advocates said that any changes to the law would violate the due process of the child migrants.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who authored the part of the 2008 law to give more protections to unaccompanied minors, said the law needs "more flexibility." However, she has not made any decisions, and is continuing to review the law.
If the refugee plan is implemented, it is not clear what will happen to undocumented families who traveled to the U.S. from Central America. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has said many times that immigrants who are in the U.S. will be deported.
In addition, the proposal will outline what will happen to the Honduran immigrants who already reside in the U.S. The U.S. government granted Temporary Protective Status in 1999 to Hondurans living in the country illegally after Hurricane Mitch. That status has been renewed many times, with around 60,000 Hondurans living in the United States receiving protected status.
Around 202,000 Salvadorans have protected status in the U.S., according to USCIS.
TPS is used by the federal government to stop the deportations of individuals to countries that are deemed unsafe.
Immigrants who arrived from countries that were granted TPS are not eligible for protection from being deported.