US weighs refugee status for youth from Honduras
Source: Associated Press
Jul 24, 4:49 PM EDT
US weighs refugee status for youth from Honduras
By JOSH LEDERMAN and JULIE PACE
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration is weighing giving refugee status to young people from Honduras as part of a plan to slow the influx of unaccompanied minors arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, White House officials said Thursday.
The plan would involve screening youths in Honduras, one of the world's most violent nations, to determine whether they qualify for refugee status. Similar in-country screening programs were set up in East Asia after the Vietnam War and in Haiti in the 1990s.
The officials cautioned that no final decision on the matter has been made and said the proposal is among a range of ideas the White House is considering. The officials briefed reporters ahead of President Barack Obama's meeting Friday with Central American leaders on the condition they not be identified by name.
The United Nations has been pushing the U.S. to treat children arriving at the southern border from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador as refugees displaced by armed conflict. The trio of nations has become one of the most violent regions in the world in recent years, with swathes of all three countries under the control of drug traffickers and street gangs who rob, rape and extort ordinary citizens with impunity.
Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IMMIGRATION_OVERLOAD_HONDURAS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-07-24-16-17-53