Title: Trump’s New Ban Leaves Few Spots for Refugees, Even the Hunted - The New York Times
Headings: Trump’s New Ban Leaves Few Spots for Refugees, Even the Hunted
Trump’s New Ban Leaves Few Spots for Refugees, Even the Hunted
Content: “There’s still this ambivalence in regarding the Central American situation as a refugee crisis,” said Wendy Young, the president of Kids in Need of Defense, a Washington organization that offers legal assistance to unaccompanied immigrant children. “There’s a perception in today’s world that refugees are people who are fleeing war, and that gang and drug violence is not war,” she said. Longer term, the Obama program in Central America could also be under threat because of its frequent reliance on a special provision called humanitarian parole, which allows certain immigrants to enter the United States temporarily even if they do not qualify as refugees. Some Republicans who want to limit immigration call humanitarian parole an overused back door to entering the United States. And Mr. Trump, in an executive order last month that sought to tighten border security, took aim at “the abuse of parole and asylum provisions.” Veronica’s aunt, Reina, said she was more scared than ever. Arrests have been made in the case, prompting more threats in recent days. “I have been offered help to leave the country, but I just cannot leave here until these girls are safe,” Reina said. She said she already borrowed $6,000 to pay a smuggler to take her 15-year-old son, who also witnessed the killings, to Dallas. Oscar Torres, a prosecutor who runs the homicide division in the area where Reina’s mother and stepfather were killed, acknowledged that the entire family was in grave danger, whether they witnessed the murders or not.