Joe Biden Announces Refugee Program for Central American Minors

Vice President Joe Biden announced Friday a program set to launch in December that will grant refugee status to minors who live in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador and whose parents legally reside in the United States.

Minors who have arrived in the United States illegally are not eligible for the refugee program.

The announcement was made at the Inter-American Development Bank, where the presidents of the three Central American countries will present a plan to stem child migration from their countries, according to Fox News Latino.

The free program allows parents to ask for refugee status for their kids.

Children granted refugee status will be able to work immediately upon arrival in the U.S. In a year, they are eligible to apply for permanent residency and in five years, for naturalization.

Each fiscal year, a U.S. quota of 4,000 people from Latin America to receive refugee status is filled. Children eligible for the refugee program will be apart of that quota which currently consists of Cubans and Colombians.

The program announcement comes after tens of thousands unaccompanied children arrived at the U.S. border earlier this year.

Launching the program in December may be a safe alternative for children making the dangerous journey from Central America and will allow many children to reunite with their parents residing in the U.S.

According to a statement made Wednesday by Salvadoran Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez, the program includes measures to stimulate economic growth, improve public safety, improve government agencies and provide better education and training opportunities.

President Barack Obama is also working on a plan to protect nearly 5 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. from deportation.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., criticized the plan saying that if Obama acts as expected, it would be a "government-sanctioned border surge" and it undermines the integrity of America's immigration system.

El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are plagued by poverty and gang violence.