Biden reopens program that allows Central American children to come to the U.S. legally – By Camilo Montoya-Galvez (CBS News) / Sept 13 2021
The U.S. government this week will start accepting new applications for an Obama-era immigration policy that allows some U.S.-based parents to bring their children from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to the country legally, the Biden administration announced Monday.
The acceptance of new petitions, set to begin Tuesday, will mark the final stage of the Biden administration’s revival of the Central American Minors (CAM) initiative, which U.S. officials have portrayed as a safe and legal alternative to the often dangerous trek migrant children undertake to reach the southern border.
“We are firmly committed to welcoming people to the United States with humanity and respect, and reuniting families,” the departments of State and Homeland Security said in a joint statement. “We are delivering on our promise to promote safe, orderly, and humane migration from Central America through this expansion of legal pathways to seek humanitarian protection in the United States.”
During the first stage of the revival of this program, which was terminated by the Trump administration in 2017, the U.S. identified over 3,000 pending cases that had been closed because of the termination, administration officials said on Monday. Over 1,400 cases have been reopened but none of the children have arrived in the U.S. so far, officials added.
