Justification for Emergency Review

JUSTIFICATION FOR EMERGENCY REVIEW

DS-7699 Affidavit of Relationship (AOR) for Minors and Children from El Salvador, Guatemala, or Honduras, OMB Number XXXX.

In Section 3(a) of Executive Order 14010, “Creating a Comprehensive Regional Framework to Address the Causes of Migration, to Manage Migration Throughout North and Central America, and to Provide Safe and Orderly Processing of Asylum Seekers at the United States Border,” President Biden specifically directed the Departments of State (State) and Homeland Security (DHS) to promptly review mechanisms to better identify and process individuals from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras who are eligible for refugee resettlement in the United States. As part of this directive, State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), in coordination with the National Security Council, Domestic Policy Council, and DHS, re-instated the Central American Minors Refugee/Parole (CAM) program under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), re-opening cases that were not completed before the CAM Program was terminated in January, 2018 after contacting the filer to confirm interest in continuing with processing. Eligibility for new minors to access refugee resettlement processing under CAM will allow U.S.-based, lawfully-present parents or legal guardians to apply for qualifying children in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to access the USRAP. Qualifying children may also be processed outside their country of nationality provided that they are present in one of the other two Northern Triangle countries. This collection of information in DS-7699 has been determined to be mission-critical by the Department to fulfill the Administration’s requirement for immediate implementation of measures to stem the flow of irregular migration from Central America.

With this emergency submission, the U.S. government recognizes the need for a safe method of migration into the United States for potential migrant children with seeking protection and family reunification. In this proposed iteration of the program, there are three new categories of individuals eligible to file a DS-7699 for sons and daughters under the age of 21, and qualified “add-ons” as defined in the AOR. They include 1) legal guardians 2) individuals with a pending I-589 application for asylum and withholding of removal as of May 15, 2021 and 3) individuals with a pending U visa application as of May 15, 2021 who have sons and/or daughters under the age of 21 who are nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Qualified “add-ons” as defined in the AOR include siblings of the sons and daughters over the age of 21 regardless of marital status, the in-country biological parent of the qualified child regardless of marital status, and caregivers of a qualified child who are also related to the U.S.-based lawfully present parent or child.

The main purpose of the DS-7699 is for the U.S.-based parent or legal guardian to provide biographical information about children overseas who intend to seek access to the USRAP, as well as other eligible family members or caregivers, for verification by the U.S. government. This form also assists DHS’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to verify parent-child relationships during refugee case adjudication. This form is necessary for implementation of this program.

PRM coordinates within State, as well as with USCIS in carrying out administration of the USRAP. A critical part of State’s responsibility is determining which individuals, from among millions of refugees worldwide, will have access to U.S. resettlement consideration.

The Department has therefore determined that:

1. This collection is needed prior to the expiration of time periods normally associated with a routine submission for review under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act; the Department is asking for a 30-day emergency review.

2. This collection is essential to the mission of the Department of State; and

3. The use of normal clearance procedures will prevent the Department from obtaining this information and severely impact its ability to respond to the mandate to provide protection and family reunification to children (and other eligible family members or caregivers) from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras who are attempting to join parents lawfully present in the United States according to the timeline set by the White House.

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED