Question

Read the excerpt from "Children of the Drug Wars."

If many children don’t meet strict asylum criteria but face significant dangers if they return, the United States should consider allowing them to stay using humanitarian parole procedures we have employed in the past, for Cambodians and Haitians. It may be possible to transfer children and resettle them in other safe countries willing to share the burden.

What is the author’s purpose in this excerpt?

to express an opinion about US asylum policies
to prompt feelings of sympathy in the reader
to suggest a suspenseful atmosphere about the asylum process
to provide facts and details about Cambodian and Haitian children

Answer 1

to express an opinion about US asylum policies

The author is advocating a policy course ("the United States should consider allowing them to stay") rather than providing facts, creating suspense, or primarily trying to evoke sympathy.