(CNN) – The Biden government will begin receiving requests this week from parents who want to bring their children from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to the United States, according to administration officials.
The announcement is based on an earlier decision by the administration to expand eligibility under the Central American Children’s Program (CAM), which offers certain children at risk in the region the opportunity to resettle in the United States.
“The importance of expanding the legal avenues and this expansion of the CAM is to allow children to apply for entry from home instead of embarking on a dangerous and irregular migratory journey,” the official said.
“Tens of thousands” may be eligible for the program, an administration official said, although it is unclear how many must apply. People who are eligible for the program include parents or legal guardians in the United States who are legal permanent residents, who are in the country under Temporary Protection Status, who have received parole in the United States, or who they have pending asylum applications filed before May 15, among others.
The reopening and expansion of the CAM program, initially launched under the Obama administration, comes in the context of a historic number of unaccompanied minors on the U.S.-Mexico border. From October to July, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service (CBP) detained more than 113,000 unaccompanied migrant children on the southern border.
The CAM program – which was canceled under the Trump administration – has previously received criticism for being too slow, particularly in situations where children are fleeing dangerous conditions. The administration official admitted that in the past the process took between 12 and 14 months on average.
Since the resumption of the program, the Biden Government has identified more than 3,000 cases that had been closed when the program ended. And of these, it has reopened more than 1,400 cases, although no child has yet arrived in the United States.