AVAILABLE FOR COMMENT: CAP Experts on White House Update to Central America Refugee Processing

Washington, D.C. — Center for American Progress policy and politics experts are available to comment today following the White House announcement regarding an update to the Central America refugee processing. Per the announcement, Costa Rica has agreed to start a program that will allow a small number of individuals who have fled extreme violence and persecution in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala to wait out the U.S. refugee resettlement process in safety. The United States announced that it also will be working with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to receive referrals of refugees—many of whom are children and mothers—from within the Northern Triangle countries and will be moderately expanding the Central American Minors program, which allows eligible individuals to apply for refugee protection or parole status without having to leave their countries of origin.

As the Center for American Progress has argued previously, meeting the challenges of the Central American refugee situation requires short-, medium-, and long-term solutions—including a focus on regional refugee processing to help ensure the safety of children and families in the region—and in the long-term, working to tackle the root causes of violence and structural poverty in Central America.

The following CAP experts are available for comment:

• Angela Kelley, Senior Vice President
• Tom Jawetz, Vice President, Immigration Policy
• Daniel Restrepo, Senior Fellow
• Philip E. Wolgin, Managing Director, Immigration
• Silva Mathema, Senior Policy Analyst, Immigration

Related resources:

• Addressing the Flow of Central American Mothers and Children Seeking Protection by Tom Jawetz (en español here)
• A Short-Term Plan to Address the Central American Refugee Situation by Philip E. Wolgin (en español here)
• A Medium- and Long-Term Plan to Address the Central American Refugee Situation by Dan Restrepo and Silva Mathema (en español here)
• Ensuring Due Process Protections for Central American Refugees by Philip E. Wolgin
• CHARTS: They Are Refugees: An Increasing Number of People Are Fleeing Violence in the Northern Triangle by Silva Mathema
• VIDEO: Why We Must Protect Central American Mothers and Children Fleeing Violence by Tom Jawetz, Philip E. Wolgin, Andrew Satter, and Kulsum Ebrahim

For more information or to speak with an expert on this topic, please contact Tanya S. Arditi at tarditi@americanprogress.org or 202.741.6258.

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