Reuniting Families through CAM

By Natalie Foote, RILA President/CEO

We are very excited to help RILA families reunite with their children through the Central American Minors (CAM) Program! For the many RILA parents whose children are still living in their home countries, CAM offers hope and the chance for families to be together again. The CAM program allows qualified children in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, as well as some qualified parents, to apply for refugee status and possible resettlement in the United States. 

The CAM program was launched in November 2014 but was shut down under the previous administration. On March 10, 2021, the U.S. government announced the reopening of the CAM program and began processing applications that had already been submitted. On September 13, 2021, the U.S. government announced that the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program would begin accepting new applications for CAM, as part of Phase Two of reopening the CAM program.

In order to qualify for the CAM program, the parent in the United States must have a certain legal status (i.e. Legal Permanent Residence, Temporary Protected Status), or have a pending U Visa application (for immigrants who were victims of violent crime in the United States), or have a pending asylum application.

The vast majority of RILA clients are asylum-seekers and have pending asylum applications, and many of them are parents with children, of all ages, still located in their home country. Some have been separated for years while they wait for their cases to be adjudicated. Many of these children are in imminent danger related to their parent’s asylum claim, or there are new circumstances that put them at risk. For example: the caretaker they were left with can no longer care for them; their caretaker has become abusive; they are suffering from malnutrition; or they are being newly targeted by violent actors in the community.

From the time asylum-seeking parents arrive in the United States, they ask us how they can reunite with their children. And up until now, there has been no answer except to wait — for years. Parents have missed their children growing up and suffered crippling anxiety and heartbreak from being separated from them, knowing they are in danger. Children, from infants to teens, have desperately missed their parents and have suffered in their absence. Through the CAM program, asylum-seeking parents have the opportunity to reunite with their children, and in some cases the spouses of their children.  

Since the CAM program is a refugee resettlement program, a U.S. government-contracted refugee resettlement agency must submit and facilitate CAM program applications. The Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) is one of these agencies, and we are so thankful to partner with them to complete and submit CAM applications for both RILA and ECDC families. RILA will directly work with families to complete the applications and compile the supporting documents, and ECDC will review, submit and monitor the applications as they are processed.

The CAM program is a life-changing opportunity for families to be together, and we would not be able to help families apply without partnering with ECDC. We’re excited to work with ECDC, and we’re even more excited for the day when children, who have been separated from their families for so long, get to hug their moms and dads again.