Advocates perplexed by US response to Central American migrants

VOA NEWS/State Department – The U.S. has announced plans to expand its refugee admissions program, with a goal of providing more assistance to Central Americans.

The program envisions moving applicants into safe zones to await processing.

Refugee advocates said on Thursday the Obama administration is sending mixed signals to Central American migrants by deporting families who have fled to the United States while increasing resources in the crime-ridden region for asylum seekers.

The United States plans to admit 85,000 refugees from around the world during the 2016 fiscal year, but had previously planned on welcoming only 3,000 from Latin America and the Caribbean.

UNHCR is working closely with the governments of the region alongside civil society partners to enhance screening capacity to identify people forced to flee NTCA violence.

In a speech at the National Defense University, Kerry said the expansion of the Refugee Admissions Program will be directed toward people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, to “offer them a safe and legal alternative to the risky journey many are now tempted to begin, making them easy prey for human smugglers who have no interest but their own profits”. “That’s who we are”. He said he expected the pace of child refugee arrivals to increase.

During the 2014 budget year, more than 67,000 children were apprehended, along with more than 68,000 people traveling as families.

Such concerns helped prompt the Department of Homeland Security, with the close involvement of the White House, to initiate crackdowns on migrants in several states over the holidays, picking up 121 people for deportation.

Young said the administration wanted to counter the perception that border is out of control but “I think what they’re going to find out is that the most unsafe political calculation is that the immigrant rights community… are now all unifying and speaking out in strong opposition to this new policy”.

“The refugee crisis is not just a Syrian problem, nor a Middle Eastern problem, nor a European or African problem”, said Kerry.

Lucille Roybal-Allard and Zoe Lofgren of California and Luis Gutierrez of IL, in a joint statement, said the Obama administration’s partnership with the UNHCR and other NGOs will provide critical support on best practices for refugee care and management. The US government retains the final say on all applications.