Migration from the countries of northern Central America to the United States has been reduced by more than 75% since last May, US interim Secretary of Security Chad Wolf said.
There are currently more than 87,000 applications for refuge in Costa Rica, of which 80% are from Nicaraguans and 7% are from Venezuelans, according to government data.
“It’s an interesting paradox for the U.S. audience because [Central American] migration is produced by an economic activity whose main market is the United States,” says scholar Carlos Sandoval.
As many as 200 refugees at a time from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — the so-called Northern Triangle — will be allowed to stay in Costa Rica for up to six months while they are processed for potential asylum in the U.S. or elsewhere.
Judicial and immigration officials in Costa Rica on Tuesday arrested two men suspected of forming part of a criminal group responsible for smuggling migrants across the Americas on their way to the U.S.
"Injustice is radicalized in the young," Pope Francis said. "They are cannon fodder, persecuted and threatened when they try to flee the spiral of violence and the hell of drugs."
The United States Supreme Court said Tuesday it will decide whether President Barack Obama has the authority to declare that millions of immigrants living in the country illegally be allowed to remain and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation.
Advocacy groups in the U.S. are advising Central American immigrants who have entered the country illegally in recent years on how to avoid deportation.
