Image Source: Wall Street Journal
Due to the indubitable border crisis, President Barack Obama will be holding a meeting Friday with Central American leaders on a possible proposal to aid in the border crisis.
There has been an exhorbitant increase (117 percent) in apprehensions among unaccompanied children ages 12 and younger, and a 12 percent increase among teenagers, between the 2013 and 2014, according to government statistics.
Many of the children arriving from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala seem to be fleeing from gang violence. Many of these gangs forcibly recruit and terrorize homes and business owners alike.
According to the Associated Press, Obama sent a letter to Congressional leaders requesting to aid the administration in the border crisis that will allow minors to come into the country as refugees. The program would start in Honduras, but could eventually be expanded to other Central American countries.
Obama is planning on discussing potential solutions that can be implemented in the Central American countries, to avoid the human trafficking in the first place.
If passed, the new program would screen thousands of minors in Honduras and will determine if they qualify as refugees to reside in the country. According to The New York Times, the pilot program will cost up to $ 47 million over the course of two years, and that is under the assumption that 5,000 apply and 1,750 people are accepted. If approved, and successful, the program will later be put in use in Guatemala then El Salvador.
And of course, there are critics of the program that feel the legal definition of the word "refugee" is being misused and that the proposal will also inadvertently boost the heap of migration to the U.S.