The United States announced the expansion of its program to process asylum requests from people from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. This effort that includes some immigrants’ inspection in Costa Rica.
By doing this, people who can receive humanitarian protection will increase as we fight human trafficking,
declared United States Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson.
In November 2014, American vice president Joe Biden informed that a parent with legal presence in the United States can ask for refugee status for his children under 21 years old if they live in Honduras, Guatemala or El Salvador.
With the expansion, children over 21 years old and the other parent or the person in charge of them may also participate in the program.
It is aimed to discourage children from making the dangerous journey to the United States because in 2014, thousands of Central American minors were detained in the US border. There wasn’t any adult with them.
Young people immigrate from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador due to poverty and criminal gangs’ harassment.
The Department of Homeland Security announced that people who need immediate protection, will be transferred to Costa Rica, before being resettled in the United States or any other country.
These actions will not solve the problem but they aiming the right direction,
expressed Johnson.