President Donald Trump’s administration is ending a program that served as a small amnesty pipeline for Central American nationals previously denied refugee status.
Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it will officially terminate the Obama-created Central American Minors (CAM) Parole Program, which essentially created a path for foreign nationals from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to enter the United States despite already being denied refugee status.
The program created a separate form of family-chain migration for Central Americans where if a legal immigrant parent’s refugee request for their under 21-years-old, unmarried child was denied, they could ask for parole.
In 2016, the program was expanded to include other foreign national family members of legal immigrants, creating a broader flow of family-chain migration to the U.S.
“[United States Citizenship and Immigration Services] will no longer consider or authorize parole under the CAM Parole Program,” DHS officials said in a statement. “In addition, USCIS will notify individuals who have been conditionally approved for parole under this program and who have not yet traveled that the program has been terminated and their conditional approval for parole has been rescinded.”
Central American nationals given parole under the program will be allowed to remain in the U.S. until their status expires. At that point, they are ordered to leave or apply for parole through another USCIS avenue.
“USCIS will consider each request for re-parole based on the merits of each application and may re-parole individuals who demonstrate urgent humanitarian reasons or a significant public benefit,” DHS officials said.
Ending the program is the latest effort by the Trump Administration to tighten the legal immigration system.
Last month, the administration halted an Obama-era loophole for foreign nationals wanting to come to the U.S. to start a business, Breitbart Texas reported.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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