--- title: Obama: Migrant Children Without Humanitarian Claims Will Be Sent Back description: An estimated 90,000 migrant children could cross into the U.S. before September. The President met with leaders of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to discuss ways to slow the influx canonical: https://time.com/3037414/barack-obama-migrant-children-humanitarian-claims/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-25T21:29:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:21:38.763Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama: Migrant Children Without Humanitarian Claims Will Be Sent Back og:description: An estimated 90,000 migrant children could cross into the U.S. before September. The President met with leaders of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to discuss ways to slow the influx og:url: https://time.com/3037414/barack-obama-migrant-children-humanitarian-claims/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt647fccda18f0f44c/69869d53cd804dd8c8ccc1f6/obama-central-american-leaders-honduras-guatemala-el-salvador.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: U.S. President Obama speaks to the media while he hosts a meeting with El Salvador's President Sanchez Ceren, Guatemala's President Perez Molina and Honduras' President Orlando Hernandez in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama: Migrant Children Without Humanitarian Claims Will Be Sent Back twitter:description: An estimated 90,000 migrant children could cross into the U.S. before September. The President met with leaders of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to discuss ways to slow the influx twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt647fccda18f0f44c/69869d53cd804dd8c8ccc1f6/obama-central-american-leaders-honduras-guatemala-el-salvador.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama: Migrant Children Without Humanitarian Claims Will Be Sent Back by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Jul 25, 2014 9:29 PM UTC  President Obama speaks to the media while hosting a meeting with the presidents of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to discuss the flow of undocumented migrants from their countries, at the White House in Washington on Friday, July 25, 2014. President Obama speaks to the media while hosting a meeting with the presidents of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to discuss the flow of undocumented migrants from their countries, at the White House in Washington on Friday, July 25, 2014.Larry Downing—Reuters by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Jul 25, 2014 9:29 PM UTC President Barack Obama took a tough line on the thousands of unaccompanied migrant children who have crossed the nation’s southern border in recent months, saying those without humanitarian claims will be subject to return to their home countries eventually. Meeting with the leaders of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, Obama continued his efforts to [dissuade parents from sending their children ](http://time.com/3033838/obama-refugee-honduras-immigration/)on the often dangerous journey to the United States. “Children who do not have proper claims,” Obama said, “will at some point be subject to repatriation to their home countries.” But Obama did preview what the administration is calling a “pilot program” that he is considering in [Honduras](http://time.com/3020874/honduras-immigration-border-crises-children/) to allow those with refugee claims to make them from that country without physically making the journey to the United States. “Typically refugee status is not granted just on economic need or because a family lives in a bad neighborhood or poverty,” Obama said. “It’s typically defined fairly narrowly.” “There may be some narrow circumstances in which there is humanitarian or refugee status that a family might be eligible for,” he added. “If that were the case it would be better for them to apply in-country rather than take a very dangerous journey up to Texas to make those same claims. But I think it’s important to recognize that that would not necessarily accommodate a large number of additional migrants.” Obama said such a system would keep smugglers from profiting off families seeking better lives for their children, and “makes this underground migration system less necessary.” Earlier this month Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson estimated that up to 90,000 migrant children will attempt to cross into the U.S. during the fiscal year ending this September. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3037414/barack-obama-migrant-children-humanitarian-claims/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3037414/barack-obama-migrant-children-humanitarian-claims/"},"headline":"Obama: Migrant Children Without Humanitarian Claims Will Be Sent Back","datePublished":"2014-07-25T21:29:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:21:38.763Z","description":"An estimated 90,000 migrant children could cross into the U.S. before September. 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