[2] The CAM Program was designed to permit certain children and other eligible family members to escape life-threatening danger and other humanitarian crises and to reunite with parents or relatives in the United States.
[2] This program provides certain qualified parents and legal guardians to apply for their children and other eligible family members, who are nationals of and physically present in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, to come to the United States as refugees or parolees.
[1] The CAM Program has been operational from 2014 to 2017-18 when it was terminated over a series of actions; and from 2021 to the present, when it was restarted in two phases, first for some previously closed cases and then for new applications.
[3] To date, most CAM Program beneficiaries have been Salvadoran families of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, making up 86 percent of applicants from the 2014–2017.
[5] The CAM Program was created as a response to a then-significant increase in the number of Salvadoran, Guatemalan, and Honduran children and youth apprehended on the U.S.-Mexico border.
[6] The U.S. government has touted the program as one part of a Latin America regional migration strategy that includes legal pathways for those needing protection.
[7] During the summer of 2014, a then-significant rise in the number of unaccompanied children fleeing violence and danger in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras led former President Barack Obama to create another mechanism to deter children from coming to the United States by land by providing a selective alternative means to reach the United States and to reunify with family.
[5] By March 2017, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had issued decisions in approximately half of the filed cases.
[3] By August 2017, approximately half of the CAM applicants with decisions finished in-country processing and were reunited with their families in the United States (1,627 as refugees and 1,465 as parolees).
[2] An executive order on border security signed by Trump days after he took office in January 2017 triggered a review of the CAM Program.
[1] On June 13, 2018, a complaint was filed in the Northern District of California, S.A. v. Trump, which challenged the August 2017 decision to terminate the CAM parole program.
[1] An Order for Permanent Injunction issued on May 17, 2019, required USCIS to reopen and continue processing certain CAM parole cases under the prior policies and procedures.
[11] Domestic resettlement agencies contacted parents who previously submitted an application to verify ongoing eligibility and determine whether they wished to reopen the case.
[1] A child qualifies for the CAM Program if they are unmarried, under the age of 21, a national of El Salvador, Guatemala, or Honduras, and physically present in one of those countries.
[3] If approved for refugee resettlement, CAM beneficiaries must complete all of the required security checks and undergo a medical examination before travel to the United States.
[11] Unlike CAM refugees, individuals conditionally approved for parole must pay for the medical exam and travel to the United States.
[15] Generally, parole status allows those who are otherwise inadmissible to the United States to temporarily come to the U.S. for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.