The State Department will no longer accept applications for a program which helped minors escape violence in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The Central American Minors program allowed children to apply for refugee status in the U.S. before leaving home, but President Donald Trump’s administration told Congress a couple of months ago that it would phase it out during the fiscal year 2018. The State Department announced that the applications will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. EST on Thursday, Reuters reports.
Former President Barrack Obama started the program in 2014. CAM was supposed to be a response to the thousands of unaccompanied children and families who arrived at the border with Mexico and are asked for asylum in the United States, but only a few days after he became a president, Trump signed an executive order which triggered a review of CAM.
According to the program, parents living in the U.S. could also apply for refugee status for the children or relatives who were still living in their homeland.
The reason for the termination of the program, according to the report of Trump administration, is because “vast majority of individuals accessing the program were not eligible for refugee resettlement.” The administration adds that the government will focus on more targeted refugee processing in Central America, which it will run in coordination with the government of Costa Rica, the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration.
The State Department stated that as of August, more than 1,500 children and eligible family members have arrived in the United States as refugees under the program from the and the total number of applications for the program since the beginning is 13,000.
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