The Biden administration has reopened a program that will allow a select group of Central Americans minors to apply for US entry from their home countries, Roberta Jacobson, Coordinator for the Southern Border, announced in the White House briefing room Wednesday.
Ambassador Jacobson joined the press briefing Wednesday as the administration faces a surge in unaccompanied minors at the border, most from Central America, as well as a lack of capacity in the shelters that typically house kids until they can be matched with a family.
The restart of the Central American Minors (CAM) program is one way that the administration is hoping to lighten activity at the border and open up a “legal avenue” for minors, Jacobson said.
The program – which allows parents from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala with legal status in the US to apply for their children’s entry – started under President Obama but was ended by the Trump administration.
“This is a process. We have a great deal to do,” Jacobson said. “But this administration has made significant progress and we will continue to do so … putting our values at the center of our policy.”
But Jacobson also reiterated a message from administration officials in recent weeks: now is not the time to come to the US.
“The border is closed,” she said in Spanish more than once.
The Biden administration is still turning away the vast majority of migrants at the border under a public health order in place from President Trump’s time in office. Unaccompanied minors are the only new exception.
Border officers encountered more than 9,000 of those children at the border last month, according to new numbers posted by Customs and Border Protection, far more than the most recent peak in 2019. And a record number of those children are being held in CBP custody for longer than the law allows, according to CNN, while officials work to find more shelter capacity.
On Wednesday, Jacobson partly blamed the recent surge in border migration on misinformation spread by smugglers who get paid to lead people to the border, and, speaking from the White House podium, she warned people not to believe them.
“The trip is very dangerous, and people should not come to the US in any irregular way,” she said in Spanish.
Ambassador Jacobson also admitted that another reason for the surge was President Biden’s election and that the change in administration brought “hope” to migrants waiting for a shift in border policy.
Still, she urged people to exercise patience while the new administration develops a better response to the demand.
“We will have legal processes for people in the future, and we’re standing those up as soon as we can,” Jacobson said.
While claiming asylum at the border is a legal way to enter the US, migrants who might make claims are instead turned away under the pandemic-related order keeping the border mostly closed.
One possible legal solution is included in Biden’s immigration bill, which was introduced in the House and Senate last month.
The legislation calls for “processing centers” throughout Central America to register “displaced persons,” though it’s unclear which parts of the proposed bill will eventually become law.
As far as the renewed program for Central American minors, officials first plan to contact parents whose applications were closed under President Trump before accepting new applications. The process is expected to begin next week.
The State Department estimated that the program reunited 5,000 children with their families when it was active under President Obama.