Easing the way for Central Americans
White House strikes deal to make refugee process smoother
WASHINGTON — A White House agreement with Costa Rica to host hundreds of Central American refugee applicants is another acknowledgment by the Obama administration of the region’s humanitarian crisis, but advocates worry it may be too late to make the policies stick if a different administration — with a different focus — takes over.
Costa Rica agreed Tuesday to host up to 200 people seeking asylum in the United States while the U.S. assesses their asylum claims. The administration also will allow residents of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras apply for U.S. refugee protection while they are still in their home countries and will expand the number of people allowed to apply to the U.S. refugee program for children.
Kevin Appleby, the senior director of international migration policy at the Center for Migration Studies of New York, called the steps a victory for those who have been arguing that the flow of families and unaccompanied children to the United States is a refugee situation and not just an economic one. But he and others also worried whether the administration has enough time to implement the new program before the end of President Barack Obama’s term.
“It’s one thing to announce something. It’s another thing to follow through with implementation,” Appleby said. “It takes time to get these things properly working and implemented. There are six months left in this administration. What can they accomplish in the next six months to put in place so people have a meaningful alternative?”
Since 2014, tens of thousands of unaccompanied children and families from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala have rushed to the U.S. border fleeing violence and poverty. The wave of migrants from the so-called Northern Triangle of Central America spurred the Obama administration to launch massive deportation raids and reopen controversial family detention centers.
The matter has continued to play out in this year’s presidential election with Democrat Hillary Clinton striking a more sympathetic tone and Republican nominee Donald Trump promising to build a wall to keep migrants out.
Amy Pope, a White House deputy homeland security adviser, acknowledged that the administration’s current efforts to address the situation had been insufficient, but that these steps illustrated the administration’s commitment to protecting Central Americans at risk.
“We think these are steps in the right direction,” she told reporters on a morning news call.
It’s far from the ambitious plan announced by Secretary of State John Kerry in January to open several refugee processing centers in the region. Those plans have been held up by the lack of agreements with neighboring countries, according to people who have been apprised of talks.
Nearly 30,000 people traveling as families and 26,000 unaccompanied children have been apprehended at the border trying to cross illegally this year.
Critics have accused the administration of ignoring the humanitarian crisis as it focused on enforcement and detention of apprehended children and parents in large family detention centers.