In October 2024, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that a lawyer can be present during the refugee interview for a Central American Minors (CAM) program applicant. Prior to this, attorneys were not allowed to be present in CAM interviews or any other refugee interviews across U.S. resettlement processes globally. The Central American Minors (CAM) Program allows certain vulnerable children in Central America to seek international protection and family reunification with a qualifying parent or legal guardian living in the United States, thereby helping prevent dangerous journeys to the U.S. southern border and limiting strain on U.S. border operations.
KIND lawyer Cielo Fortin-Camacho is one of the first lawyers to be present for a CAM applicant interview. After USCIS’s announcement allowing attorney representation in CAM interviews, Cielo, Senior Attorney on KIND’s Mexico team, took on the refugee cases for three children, siblings ages 10, 12, and 21 who live in Honduras. The children’s mother lives in Washington DC, and KIND helped her file the CAM application for her children to reunify with her.
“The first step was to get to know the family and have them get to know me, so that they felt comfortable with me,” Cielo said. “I contacted the family, introduced myself, and gradually began to introduce the topics that might come up in the interview. Then later I started to conduct mock interviews with them. I based my preparation on the asylum interview, which I have experience conducting and which is very similar to the CAM interview.”
In early December, Cielo traveled to Honduras to meet the children in person and attend their interview. During her visit, she heard repeatedly about safety issues in Honduras and how dangerous it is. Concerns like these can motivate many children from Honduras, and neighboring countries of Guatemala and El Salvador, to seek safety in the United States. After a full day of in-person preparation including mock interviews, Cielo met the three children and the rest of their family at 7 am at the USCIS office for the interviews, which would take a full day. Due to Cielo’s advocacy, each child was guaranteed an individual interview, ensuring confidentiality and that they each had a full opportunity to make their voices heard in their claims.
When asked what the value is of having a lawyer present at the CAM interview, Cielo remarked:
The interviews went very well. They went as well as they did because of the preparation, but also because I was in the room to make the children feel comfortable. Me being there gave them confidence; they felt supported and empowered. Also, I was able to make sure that they had time and space to fully tell their stories. I was able to raise questions, themes, and topics, some of which may have not come up if the child felt nervous or unsure about how to respond to the interview questions.
I feel grateful to have been there and be able to help them, and I feel exceedingly proud of how well they all did in the interview.
The children and their family were very grateful for Cielo’s presence and assistance. Happily, the family was granted refugee status in January, and have completed their medical exams, an important step in preparing to travel to the United States to reunify with their mother.
Based on her firsthand experience working on the border in El Paso/Juárez, and seeing what kids go through, Cielo shared, “The importance of CAM is that it provides a safe passage to family reunification. So that we don’t see these kids on the border, or getting lost or never arriving to their destination. CAM means that kids can avoid that dangerous journey to the border.”