What is the authors purpose in this excerpt? To express an option about US asylum policies To prompt feelings of sympathy I'm the reader To suggest a suspenseful atmosphere about the asylum process To provide facts and details about Cambodian and Haitian children

To express an opinion about US asylum policies.

Explanation:

According to a different source, this is the excerpt from "Children of the Drug Wars" that comes with this question:

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.

The main purpose of the author in this text is to express an opinion about US asylum policies. In this text, the author tells us that the United States "should" allow children to stay. The use of the word "should" expresses that the author believes the United States has a moral or ethical responsibility towards these people. Therefore, she is providing her personal opinion on what the country needs to do in order to deal with these children.