Norton Says President Obama Complies with International Law By Allowing Central American Children Refugee Status & Offering Legal Aid Funding

WASHINGTON, D.C - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) applauded President Obama's recent actions to allow Central American children to apply for refugee status, which complies with international law, as reinforced by the United Nations in July, and to provide them legal services. The President's plan provides in-country refugee processing to ascertain the eligibility of the children for refugee status, providing the possibility of a legal pathway for children from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador to come to the United States, some perhaps to join their families here. The D.C. region has one of the highest Central American populations in the country. The President's plan follows precedents set in Haiti and Vietnam, when the White House conducted in-country refugee processing in the 1980s and 1990s. Norton says the United Nations earlier declared the Central American children coming to the United States to be refugees, but the immigrant backlash lashed out against them as illegal immigrants. A refugee is defined as an individual outside of their country who is unable or unwilling to return to her country out of a fear of persecution. Norton agrees that these children, who are fleeing collapsed states being run by transnational gangs and drug cartels, appropriately fit the definition of a refugee.

"Although millions of immigrants have come to this country both legally and illegally, this is our first refugee crisis that I know of," Norton said. "Treating these children as refugees if they can demonstrate that status in their own country will deter many from embarking on a journey to the United States fraught with dangers, many in hopes of reuniting with their families."

The President's plan announced last week in a memo to the State Department on determinations for Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2015 added Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador to the list of countries from which individuals can be considered refugees. However, the Central American children did not increase the number of refugee visas available. The memo, consistent with previous years, puts a limit on refugee visas at 70,000 but 4,000 of these, are allocated to Latin America and Caribbean.

In July, shortly after the Central American children began coming over the border, Norton had a meeting with her District of Columbia Congressional Latino Council (CLC), which advises her on Latino matters, anticipating that a fair number of children would have relatives in D.C. The group issued several recommendations, including granting refugee status to children coming from these Central American countries, instead of treating them as undocumented immigrants. Because this city and region have one of the largest of Central American immigrant populations in the United States, D.C. has an effective network of organizations that offers services to these immigrants. Some who serve on Norton's Congressional Latino Council have long offered such services.

Norton said that the President's announcement last Thursday that the administration will be offering $9 million in legal aid over the next two years to children who have been apprehended after crossing the border illegally was "nothing short of essential if there is to be any semblance of fairness in the complicated process of determining the status of the children." These funds will be used to provide legal services to 2,600 children facing deportation, amounting to about $3,460 per child. Once these children are here, they are placed in the custody of the United States Health & Human Services Department's Office of Administration of Children & Families until they are placed with family members or sponsors, where they wait until they go before an immigration judge. In July, Norton sent a letter to the president of the District of Columbia Bar inquiring about the Bar's efforts to help address the needs of the Central American minors crossing the border illegally. At the time, there was a backlog of 360,000 pending immigration cases from children and families petitioning the court to avoid deportation.

To further discuss the District's readiness to effectively deal with children coming to D.C, Congresswoman Norton is hosting a roundtable as part of Hispanic Heritage Month entitled "Caring for the Surge of Unaccompanied Minors from Central America" on Tuesday, October 14 from 9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. at Carlos Rosario International Charter School, located in Ward 1, the heart of the Hispanic Community in the District of Columbia.