The prospect of another border crisis has been pre-empted by the decision by President Obama and his team to enable Central American minors to legally enter the United States if they have parents who are eligible for the deferred action program created by the president’s recent executive action.
“The Central American Minors (CAM) Refugee/Parole Program provides certain qualified minors in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras a safe, legal and orderly alternative to the dangerous journey that some children are currently undertaking to the United States,” the US immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced, which will start taking applications on December 1st this year. Parents must have received deferred action status or had their deportations postponed for at least a year for their children to qualify to legally come to the US,
The program has outraged conservative Republican senator Jeff Sessions, who yesterday said that it only increased the incentive for undocumented immigrants to enter the United States illegally. Sessions added that the government should be making moves to put an end to the influx of unskilled labor and put more time and energy into helping the people already living and working in the country.
“One of the president’s most shocking unilateral actions is his chain migration program for the relatives of illegal immigrants,” Sessions declared. The program was introduced by the Obama administration following the influx of undocumented immigrants from Central America last year in a move that Sessions says will be at enormous cost to the taxpayers.