A Feb. 2 executive order by President Biden opened the door for reviving the Central American Minors refugee program, calling for “appropriate actions to reinstitute and improve” the initiative.
The CAM program, established in 2014 by the Obama administration, allowed children in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras with a parent already legally residing in the U.S. to gain a path to resettlement in the U.S. Program eligibility requirements were expanded in 2016.
The Trump administration terminated the program in 2017. At that point, it rescinded conditional approval already granted to applicants who hadn‘t yet entered the country; that action was reversed by a federal court in 2019.
Travel expenses for CAM beneficiaries are covered by private-sector donors, including United Airlines.